As I Lay Dying
by K. Lynn Perks
Summary: "I know you want to save me from walkers, Daryl, but it ain't walkers I'm terrified of anymore." Daryl finds the need to protect Beth after they flee the prison, but death's are just inevitable, and yet they cant stay away from each other. Smut moments after CH 12 [Bethyl] Spoilers for season 4!
1. Chapter 1

Note: This is a first person pov, via Beth, after the entire prison riot with the Gov. Beth runs off with Daryl and this is the few spare moments that bring them closer together. It will move to a M rating eventually.

Disclaimer: i do not own any Walking Dead hoopla. Just love the characters.

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"I just want to save you while there's still something left to save"

Savior - Rise Against

Chapter 1 - Run; Save Something

I used to run track back in high school. When I was fifteen I had completed the hundred-yard dash in record time. I used to be called "legs" before everything else associated with Beth Greene. It's funny how stupid your name can sound when you don't want to be referred by it. Everyone automatically assumes I'm Beth the weak, or Beth the scared…worse was when they referred to me as Beth the suicidal. It's not like I didn't earn that name. I had tried to kill myself so I didn't leave them much of a choice. Still, I didn't want to be the weak one, hell, when things started to get rough around here I was pretty sure I stepped up just as much as every one else. No one else wanted to take responsibility for the kids; I did that on my own.

So why was it that now, as I'm running a foot length behind Daryl, that I feel those insecurities mustering back up inside of me? Granted I haven't been on track for a while now, but even his long strides have me thinking that I'm doing something wrong and fully messing up again. It isn't fair.

"We gotta keep goin' Beth!" he yells, and then jabs his knife into a walker that's much too close for comfort.

By this point I want to die. I've watched my father's murder, watched my sister run in a different direction, but somehow I still run. It's all I have left in me.

The clearing that we come to is full of sticky branches, and I pull the twills out of my shirt while he checks the area. Oh yeah, like sticky branches are the real enemy. I want to tell him to move on faster, but I'm stuck inside my head of death and depression and all I can do is follow when he tells me to keep running.

Run.

Run.

Run.

It's all I can do without feeling like a total loss of life.

By the time the moon has risen overhead, and by the time he has finally run out of air, I slump over the nearest tree stump and throw up. This entire day of running makes me sick and honestly I'm not sure I can deal with much more.

As I bend over the stump of the tree I feel his hand on my back and I slink away. Hell no, I don't need comfort right now. I need, damn, I don't know what I need. Still, I feel more confident moving away and letting him rest against the tree adjacent to mine.

"We need ta keep goin'," he says, very casually, like my fathers death, or the prison wasn't even a blip in his damn radar.

I snort back a laugh and look at him for the first time, for real, the real first time…

As much as I want to yell I cant do it. It's like he hit the wall just as hard as I did. "to where?" I asked, liking my bottom lip, which will hopefully stop the pounding of my head.

"Dunno, we just gotta git somewhere safe." He muttered, his crossbow hanging over his back.

For once I agree, and when he started moving again I followed without making a fuss.

It was when we reached the cabin in the woods that I nearly lose my breath. An acre of land and yet no one there to welcome us when we knocked at the front door. My gut wanted someone to answer; all I needed was someone to answer. When five minutes passed, and Daryl was sure of the safety, we crept inside. I still wanted to wait for an answer.

Have you ever been alone? Really truly alone?

When the echo of the knock came back again I knew it was only truly us there. It scared me. I didn't want to be that alone. He shoved the door in regardless.

As soon as we stepped inside I felt my gut go numb and everything we had run from came pounding back into my skull like a damn steel drum.

I didn't know where Maggie was, couldn't call for my daddy….all I had was a half stranger to make me feel safe. All he was doing was checking the rooms for walkers, and even if that made me feel safe it also made me feel alone.

"Daryl?" I called out, hoping he heard me from the other room.

Silence met me, so did that feeling that made me want to run again.

"You ok?" I called, half wondering if I should just up and leave him in this place.

A crash had me stumble back into the couch.

"DARYL!" I yelled, my hand moving over my hair.

He appeared from the room without a scratch and I cursed myself for being so dumb.

"What the hell ya yellin' about?" he muttered, his crossbow still tight in his hands.

I wanted to say I was scared, honestly, Beth Greene was the epitome of scare, but at the same time I didn't want to be a needy child. I was sick of those assumptions.

"Ya gonna say somethin'? Ya don't have to worry really." He looked back over his shoulder.

Of course I worried all the time; he just didn't get the real worry that surrounded me.

I shook my head, " I lost Judy," I whispered it, not wanting to admit my stupid defeat.

To be honest, I never wanted to be a mother. When I was younger I had watched my own mother die before I had the chance to truly appreciate her. I tired so hard to make up for it, but when shit hit the ceremonial fan, I never got the chance to do so. A mother? No….

Carol kept telling me Judy would grow up to know me as he mom, and I always laughed.

I wasn't fit to be a mom, hell; I wasn't fit to be anything.

"We all lost her," he muttered, running his hand over his face again and then shifting his crossbow onto his shoulder.

"I'm gonna check this place out." He mumbled, nodding to the staircase, " you got yer gun?"

I slipped my hand into my back pocket and felt the icy metal against my skin, "Yeah," was all I could say.

He nodded, giving me a soft grin before slipping up the stairs and out of sight.

I kept myself at the bottom of the staircase just in case.

All the while I wanted to fall into a slumber and never wake up again.

I wiped my hands over my eyes, tears streaming despite my other arrangements. He told me to wait, and as much as I wanted to run I didn't.

"breathe…." I mumbled, taking two steps back and falling into the recliner that was set behind me.

When I fell into the chair the last thing I recalled was the feel of skin against the back of my knees; the other thing I recalled was the feel of cold against my face…the chill of the air…the gasping for life…

I punched upwards as soon as I emerged from water… arms around me… I felt something…

I just didn't know what.

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Love to all that reveiw; leave a message and you get a cookie :)


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Note: Thank you my lovely friends for revieing this story. i loved your feed back and look forward to hearing more of your input.

Please leave some feedback and let me know if there is anything you'd like to see between these two. Im always looking for some creative ideas.

Well...here we go...

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I don't know your thoughts these days

We're strangers in an empty space – Keane

Chapter 2 - Moment's Gone By

I was wet. Soaking really. When I finally gasped for air I realized I was half submerged in a barrel of water. There were arms around me. I felt them even though I was still contemplating my surroundings. When I opened my eyes I saw blue. Bright blue. His eyes were the first thing I could see and I was ok with that. I didn't expect the choking of water, or the extra gasp for air.

Thankfully I didn't throw up again. Not while I was in his arms.

I looked up at Daryl and gave a half smile; it was all I could do during this moment.

"Ya ok?" he asked, his arms still under my body as I came up from the barrel of water.

I coughed, water springing from my lungs, "yeah, I'm ok." And I was, kinda, I mean, as ok as I could imagine.

"This place is safe, " he added, nodding back to the cabin and then looking me back in the eye, "we ought to get some sleep."

As I sat there shivering in his arms all I wanted to do was set back out and run some more. I wanted to hide. I wanted to be dead. I wanted to be something that I knew he wouldn't let me. So I nodded and let him carry me back into the dank cabin.

"I'm sorry bout yer pops." He mumbled, making it to the couch and placing me gently there.

I snuffed back a sob and nodded, "don't mean much now…can't bring him back." I sucked back my own sobs.

Course I couldn't bring him back, just couldn't do it, but at the same time I just wanted to lash out and take down ever person the damn governor had brought to the prison.

I swallowed hard; pulled my legs into my chest and then looked up at Daryl. He was busy placing scraps of paper into the fireplace and poking them with the end of his crossbow.

"Did it hurt him?" I asked; lowering my chin down to my knees and wondering if my Father had felt the blade slice through his neck.

He poked the fire again, this time pausing and wiping his own hand over his face. Maybe it was the first time I ever saw him look defeated. Maybe it was the first time I ever saw him look lost.

"Don't think about it, Beth," he mumbled, moving away from the crackling fire and then coming to drop beside me on the couch. "We gotta move on."

Move on.

Yeah, cause that was easy.

"So we should forget about everyone? Just go off? Just …" I had the urge to keep yelling; the urge to keep telling him how screwed up this whole thing was.

I raked my hands up through my wet hair and choked back a laugh, "So it's just you and me then?" I asked, snorting again, "or are you gonna run off and leave me? Just like everyone else…just like Judy…like my Dad….?"

When his fist punched the wall I jumped in my seat, half expecting the wall to fall down beside me.

"Fuck you, Beth" he grumbled, standing from his place and then pointing towards the door, "I aint ever gonna give up on that girl till I see her dead body…" he snorted, "but if ya wanna make me feel like an' idiot, ya just might as well fuck yerself….i aint gonna sit here waitin fer yer approval of shit." He snorted, "yer Dad's dead, yeah, but we aint seen no corpse on her so shut the hell up. "

It stuck me hard, harder then I could imagine.

"Get some sleep," he huffed, "we'll suss it out in the mornin'"

His footsteps on the stairs jolted me, had me looking up over the couch from where we were just arguing.

Once his form was gone I settled back into the couch and cried. I cried for a long time. I cried longer than I had ever expected to do so. We don't get to have feelings anymore; feelings were all I had left.


	3. Chapter 3

Wow, I'm humbled by the sweet responses, not to mention all the good feedback I got for this little side project Im working on. Just gotta say I love it, and it amps me up to post even more frequently than I had originally planned.

Once again, please leave your feedback and let me know if there is anything you'd like to see happen between the two. I love input.

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_**First you know I gotta ask**_

_**What made you want to live this kind of life? –Cage the Elephant**_

_Chapter 3 – No Rest For the Wicked_

"What's this?" I asked, sitting up from my restless sleep and looking up at Daryl holding a bowl in his hand.

"I dunno, looked like oatmeal or somethin'… just eat it." He shoved it in my face and I took it without a second question.

I scooped up some of the sloppy white material and carefully spooned it into my mouth. When it dribbled down over my lip I quickly wiped it away in embarrassment. Hell, I couldn't even eat without looking like an idiot.

"It aint very good." He added, nodding to a bowl on the desk that was half empty. I could only assume he had some himself and couldn't find the will to force it down.

"it's fine." I whispered, shoveling more in then necessary, practically choking on the lumps that hadn't softened from the lack of hot water.

"We gotta move on today," he wiped his hand over his face, his eyes taking me in and waiting for me to react.

"ok," was all I mumbled, still trying to down the stuff he deemed worthy or a breakfast. Well, it wasn't like we were given much of an option what to eat.

"Keep eatin' and I'll get our stuff ready." He paused in the doorframe, and I waited for him to bring something up about my stupid childish breakdown the night before. Nothing. Well at least I didn't have to worry about him mothering me much. It wasn't like Daryl was the emotional type.

When he finally slipped out of the room, and when I could finally hide the rest of the oatmeal under the bed, I removed myself from the sheets and began pulling my hair back out of my face. Sleeping in wet clothes and wet hair had made me cold, but the dampness had seemed to reside and my shoes didn't feel all slushy anymore.

That was good.

I guess.

I grabbed my bag and hurried down the stairs, surprised when I felt an arm sling across my chest and block me from entering the kitchen area.

"Are ya stupid or somethin'? he growled; removing his hand and then letting me come down the last few steps. "what if somethin' was goin' on down here? Ya just gonna run into a fuckin' frenzy?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, and then folded my hands over my chest, "Im sorry, I just wasn't thinking."

"Hell no, ya weren't thinkin'" he shouldered his crossbow and heaved out a sigh, "look if we gotta do this together than we gotta be on the same page when it comes to bein' safe, got it?"

I nodded, kinda unsure about what I was nodding at.

"If ya don't hear me, then ya don't come runnin' into some pending danger? A'right?" His blue eyes bore into my own and I nodded again without a word.

Couldn't I do anything right.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled again.

"Quit yer apologizin'"

"I just wanna say Im sorry is all." I defended, suddenly angry that he wouldn't even let me have that victory.

"I aint gonna be yer fuckin' babysitter, Beth!" his words were harsh and I stumbled back into the wall.

"I never said I needed one."

"Ya sure as hell act like it." He fixed his bag over his shoulder and then nodded to the door. "we're gonna move until we hit the next town…it's a few miles from here, but we might hit another cabin on the way." He paused, "if we do…well...we gotta rest."

I didn't argue, I just nodded again. Like a stupid puppet.

"Come on."

Running again.

Seemed like it was all I had done within the last year.

The few walkers we hit weren't hard cases, just stragglers that Daryl seemed to take down before I even noticed they were there.

"I can't run anymore." I huffed, my hand coming to rest on a tree just as he pulled his arrow out of the face of some lady….some walker.

"we don't have the time." He muttered, his head tilting back to look up into the sky.

The sun was setting, I could easily tell that from the way the light moved through the trees.

"Why we even going so far? How are we supposed to find anyone if we keep going further away from the prison?"

With a rough tug he pulled me away from the tree and started dragging me forward through the brush, "Don't ya ever shut up?" he grumbled, still pulling me along.

"I just though you were some expert hunter or something? Couldn't you hunt them down?" I asked, stumbling over a log in the way. Daryl of course had waltzed right over it.

"Ya talk back this much to yer Daddy?" he half yelled, and I nearly fell over another tree stump.

I could sense his uncomforting look as soon as he said it.

"Jesus, Beth, I'm …" he huffed, letting go of my arm a bit, "I ain't good with this shit." He added, although somewhere deep down I knew it was probably the best apology I'd get from him.

"Let's just keep moving," I whispered, tugging my arm out of his grasp and pushing passed him on the path.

The air was getting cooler, and I just wanted to find sanctuary.

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	4. Chapter 4

Merry Christmas to all you lovely readers and reviewers! Here is your holiday present...another new chapter, lol!

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_**And after the storm,  
I run and run as the rains come  
And I look up, I look up,  
on my knees and out of luck,  
I look up. – Mumford and Sons **_

_Chapter 4 – Little Touches _

"Com'ere," I heard him holler after me; footsteps rustling in the brush as I charged forward.

I kept charging forward, kinda liking the fact that I didn't have to talk to him if I kept ahead. He must have sensed that I wasn't up for company because even when he caught up he stayed a few footfalls behind me. At least he had some self-control.

_Don't let him get to you, Bethy. _I could hear my Daddy's voice inside my head. _He didn't mean anythin' by it. _

Even in his death my Daddy was the voice of reason. I closed my eyes, only for a second, and took a deep breath. I knew my Daddy had a lot of respect for Daryl, hell, most of the people back at the prison looked up to him as their unspoken leader. Of course I had never really had the pleasure of spending one on one time with the older man. Mostly I hung around the kids and did the clean-up work when no one else wanted to do it.

So even if everyone else in the prison trusted him, I barely knew him. The only time I had ever really conversed with him was the afternoon he came to my cell to tell me about Zack. Even then the encounter had been short and pretty lackluster. Zack was dead, I didn't say good-bye and we were back at square one without an accident.

I had hugged him I think. I felt my nose scrunch up while I tried to remember.

Yes, I had hugged him, and he just stood there stiff as a board, almost like he was afraid I was gonna break if he tried hugging me back. Thank the Lord he didn't hug me back. I never said goodbye to Zack…

I didn't deserve a hug.

My thoughts jumbled up even more as we shifted around trees and debris. When the sun finally slipped down below the tree tops I could feel the immediate drop in temperature. I shivered, my hands coming up to rest on my upper arms.

"Ya cold?" He muttered behind me, still lagging back and keeping his distance.

"I'm fine." I replied, rubbing my arms but refusing to give in that I was too prissy to carry on.

"Whatever," he grumbled.

"I said I'm fine, Daryl. Ya don't need to keep asking me if I'm alright every few-"

I was glad his hand came over my mouth when he tackled me to the ground; glad that when I gasped against his hand that I could pawn off the noise due to the herd of walkers he was pointing at through the trees. It would have been embarrassing to admit that I had felt his knee brush up between my legs.

It would have been horrifying to admit that it had made my stomach do a backflip. I was thankful for the distraction of blood thirsty walkers up ahead.

"Don'ya move none," he whispered into my ear, his warm breath blowing the hairs on the back of my neck.

Move? I couldn't even breathe. I had never really been this close to a man before, Jimmy didn't really count, and Zack, well, Zack had been more of the innocent farm boy type. It had taken weeks for him to actually pucker up the nerve to kiss me. So yeah, even if I had just been thinking about how tactless Daryl could be, I couldn't stop myself from thinking rather inappropriate things as his body sprawled out on top of mine.

"Stop movin' round." He hissed in my ear, and I realized that all of this untimely thinking was causing me to wiggle around.

Now that I was aware of it I felt my bottom bump against his belt buckle.

I wanted to die. Ok, well no, not in the literal sense. I guess it's sort of ill-timed to be joking about dying while a herd of walkers drifted on by.

"I said quit it." He grumbled, and I felt his body lift up the slightest, enough so that he was putting a lot of his weight on his forearms and less on top of me.

Maybe it was the peak in his tone, or the shift of our bodies on the ground. Maybe walkers just have amazing hearing or something because two closest to us had suddenly shifted directions. If I had been alone I probably would have just stayed there hoping they didn't smell me. Daryl was on his feet and pulling me up by the back of my jacket before I had a chance to think.

"Jus' go, Beth." He was shoving me again. Seemed like that's all he ever did lately.

I could hear the groans behind us, my heart hammering like wild in my chest. I thought about Maggie; how if I died right here I'd never get the chance to see her again. I'd never get the chance to say goodbye. Something ignited inside of me. I ran harder, Daryl placing his hand on my back and gesturing towards an opening in the trees.

I could hear running water, barely see a river through the trees, when a walker blindsided me from my left.

"Daryl!" I screamed, tripping over my feet and fumbling for the gun I had slipped in the top of my jeans.

"Move yer head," and if I didn't have quick reflexes it was likely that the arrow would have impaled both my own skull and the walkers.

It seemed pointless, but I finally pulled my gun out, regaining my footing and following Daryl towards the river bed.

"We gotta swim 'cross." He was already knee deep by the time I followed him in. A quick glimpse over my shoulder urged me forward; four walkers had come into the small clearing.

"We don't know what's on the other side." I yelled, my gun over my head as I kicked my way across the water.

"Ain't got much of a choice."

He was on the other side before I was, scouting the edge of the woods for walkers while I finally made it to the other side. I could hear the splashing behind me, but I didn't dare look back to see how close they were.

"Give me yer hand." He leaned over and pulled me up, one hand hanging on to my bicep while the other hand laced fingers with my gunless one.

I wanted to take a moment to rest, maybe catch my breath again, but I could hear the splashing grow closer and I could feel the rising pressure of Daryl's grip on my arm.

I don't know how much longer we ran for, maybe an hour, maybe six. When we finally cleared the woods and came to the road again Daryl slowed his pace and glanced back at the trees. "Don't reckon they'll be comin' out this far." He gave a long look up and down the road, "Saw'em get wrapped up in those tree stumps back a ways. Think we're 'k to walk fer a while."

He nodded his head to the right, "Up this way," he started walking and I followed, "there's a town I think."

"You think?" I quirked my eyebrow questioningly, my gun shaking in my frozen hands.

"Did some runs up this way," He spun around to survey the road, walking backwards for a moment before turning front again.

"And it ain't overrun with walkers?" I asked again, my eyes shifting up to search his face for the truth.

When he gave a slight shrug of his shoulder I wasn't reassured, "Some in the center o'town," he brought his right hand up to his mouth and started biting at the cuticle on his thumb. "But they got a shitty motel right outside the town line. Last time Glenn and I came through we cleared it out lookin' for soap and shit."

I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of staying in a seedy motel with Daryl. The location just seemed too big and too open and too risky.

But I was tired and freezing, and not in the mood to start another argument with Daryl about where we were heading.

"Ya ain't got some shit ta say 'bout where were goin'?" He asked, his thumb still lingering around his mouth.

I guess it could have been from how tired I was, or maybe just parts of my brain frozen over, but I grabbed him at the elbow and doubled over in laughter. It was like he had read my damn mind, and I couldn't stop the giggles from bubbling up and slipping out.

"What's so funny?" He raised his eyebrow, his eyes moving between my face and my hand resting on his elbow.

Course I could have spent the rest of the way explaining to him what I found so funny. It would have at least killed the last leg of the walk into town.

I found it funnier to keep giggling every now and then; all the while Daryl shooting me annoyed looks every time I refused to tell him what I found so damn hilarious.

**Remember to leave some feedback! Those who do will get chocolate kisses!**


	5. Chapter 5

Have I mentioned how much I lovey you all? Cause I truly do! You all have seriously pushed my writing muse into overdrive. This story was something I was just writing to kill some time, but you've made me want to explore the plot further and faster.

Here's the little chocolate kisses treat for all of you who have reviewed! A little bit of cuteness and steamy moments between the two. Please read the important note at the end of the chapter.

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_**Oh I never get sleep  
No I just reach  
I can feel it on the ends of my fingers  
Taste it on the tips of my teeth  
So you see why I never get sleep – Allen Stone **_

_Chapter 5 – Baby its Cold Outside_

"Should we ring the bell for service?" I joked, peering over the front desk of the motel and grabbing a handful of keys that hung on a hook.

Daryl grunted out something that almost sounded like a laugh but I wasn't entirely sure considering his face had remained stoic.

I hadn't realized how bad my hands were shaking till they all started to jingle together. "Room 9, 4, 21 and 16," I stated, throwing each key down on the front desk after turning their little numbered key tags over and revealing our possible rooms for the night.

Daryl pushed aside room 9 and 4 first, noting that they were on the first floor and more likely to have walker activity even if he and Glen had cleared out most of the rooms weeks ago.

"Best bets 16 or 21," he held a key in each hand respectively, "yer choice, "he wiggled the keys in his hands.

"Why can't we use both?" I suggested, wanting very much to have my own room to myself once again.

His jaw clenched tight and he shook his head, "I ain't goin' ta sleep well knowin' yer alone in another room. If we gotta run in the middle of the night, we gotta be ready ta go together, understand?"

"Guess that makes sense," I added, my eyes flickering between rooms 16 and 21. I reached out and grabbed the key to room 21. "I like this one."

He snorted, "Ya ain't even seen the room yet. How do ya know ya'll like it?"

I swallowed hard, "My daddy's birthday was the 21st of October," I shrugged, "Just seems like it's a lucky sign is all."

The corner of his mouth twitched and he nodded, adjusting his bag and his crossbow. It was the first time I had said anything about my Daddy without him jumping down my throat. In a weird twisted way it was oddly comforting.

He tossed the number 16 room key back on the desk, "A'ight, let's go then." He pushed back outside the office and into the broken down parking lot of the motel.

There was a staircase just round the outside and Daryl went up first to check for lingering walkers. His soft whistle had me scurry up the steps two at a time, and I almost tripped over my undone bootlace once I reached the top.

Daryl gave a raspy chuckle, "Gotta teach ya to be lighter on those feet, darlin'."

"I _am_ light," I shove pass him, but smirked just enough for him to know I wasn't angry with him this time. "My damn feet are frozen is _all_." I added defensively, and then stopped outside of room 21.

He placed his hand on my shoulder, and for a second I think he's about to take my temperature, but he just then reaches down and puts his hand on the doorknob, "Let me go first," and I take out my gun again and hover right behind him as he slips in the key and then knocks lightly on the door.

He waited a moment, knocked softly again, this time pressing his ear to the door just for good measure.

"Anything?" I whisper, my back slightly turned away from his so that I could keep watch on the staircase and other motel rooms.

"Wait fer a minute, and then follow me in." He uttered through gritted teeth.

I nodded, still keeping my back turned halfway so I could keep guard. My gun was shaking in my hands, and I felt Daryl's boot nudge my own warranting my attention. I turned my face slightly so I could catch his stare with my own.

"Yer gonna be fine, Beth." He assured me, "we're gonna be fine. Don't be nervous," he reached out his hand and held it over my shaky fists.

I almost laughed at his attempt to be comforting, "I'm not shaking cause I'm nervous, I'm just freezing out here." I nodded towards the door, "Hurry up and check inside so I can get in there too."

I guess my boldness took him off guard cause he raised his brow a bit and then backed up into the room. I counted my Mississippi's. When I was a kid I hadn't always been the most patient one in the Greene bunch. While everyone else seemed to take their time doing things I always leapt right to it; most of the time tripping myself up in the process. So my mother had told me to count Mississippi's up to sixty. By the time I reached sixty my anxiousness had calmed down and I could proceed. This seemed like it called for a time to count those Mississippi's again.

"One Mississippi…two Mississippi…three Mississippi…"

I was almost up to twenty seven Mississippi when Daryl came back to the threshold of the door. He leaned against the door frame and grinned, "Alright Mississippi Queen, the joint's clear." He stepped back and let me slide into the room.

I was hoping it'd be at least a little bit warmer than outside, but the electricity had probably been off for a good year or so now, and the room obviously hadn't been inhabited since lord knows when. I dropped my bag on the floor and grabbed for the blanket on the bed. Daryl was busy placing an armchair against the door and making sure we'd be protected at least for one night.

I peeled off my jacket and felt it squish in my fingers, "How come you always seem to get me wet?" I asked, tossing the jacket over by the window.

There was a sudden crash, and I snapped my face in his direction to see him fumbling with his crossbow.

"Wha'dya say?" He looked flushed, and I quirked my brow.

"Alls I said was that in the last two days you've dumped me in a barrel of water and then forced me to swim across a river. Seems like you keep tryin' to drown me or something." I looked up at him, "It's a joke Daryl." I shook my head.

"This ain't a time for jokes, Beth."

He didn't seem to think so.

"I thought it was funny," I mumbled under my own breath, finding myself wondering why he seemed to switch moods so suddenly.

He was rummaging through the closet and then through the dresser. I was busy trying to get my boots off which was proving to be quite the chore considering the laces were wet and my fingers looked like tiny shriveled prunes.

"Ya need some help?" I hadn't noticed that he had come to stand in front of me while I worked. With a nod I scooted back on the edge of the bed and lifted my left foot up a little higher.

"Thanks," I smiled, trying to regain the lightness that had come between us during our walk to the motel.

" 's no bother, " he hoarsely grumbled, tugging at the laces with his calloused fingers. I watched his fingers while they worked, taking in his badly scarred knuckles as they bent and twisted the lace out of its never ending knot. " the hell…did you glue these together?"

I shivered, "It's cause they're wet…" tried wiggling my toes around but I couldn't feel them. "Daryl…" I said in a rising panic, "Daryl I can't feel my feet." Maybe it was because we had been so focused on finding the motel, but I couldn't remember the last time I had felt my toes move in my boots.

All I could think about was the time Maggie had snuck out to the barn when we were dumb kids, pretending to run away after my Daddy started drinking again. She was stupid. Didn't bring a blanket, didn't even bring warm clothes for the cold December night. She had been hours away from frostbite by the time my Daddy found her curled up in the hay. It had kept her somewhat warm enough to avoid any real damage, but her time in the hospital had sobered him up some.

"Shit," he muttered, pulled his knife out of his pocket and slicing through the laces. I guess he saw my look of horror, "I ain't gonna slice yer toes off, just keep yer feet still." He sliced, and then pulled, and then yanked my boot off. Quickly moving to the other boot while I tried to wiggle my free toes. The socks I was wearing were still damp, and I leaned over to yank it off just as he finished getting off the other boot.

He jerked the other boot off, my sock following it, and quickly brought both my feet up into his hands. "Yer freezing," he stated, as if I hadn't been complaining about that for hours now.

Slowly he started to rub his palms over the soles of my feet, working up as much friction as possible to get some color back in their white pasty glory.

"We gotta git ya out of these clothes," he murmured , his eyes finding mine and trying to bring as much comfort to me as possible.

If I could get any whiter I would have. The idea of stripping off my clothes in front of Daryl sending my mind straight back to that moment in the woods, but he was right and I tried shirking off the sweater I was wearing while he continued to rub my feet.

When I finally broke free of the damp material, and tossed it to the floor I quickly took up the blanket on the bed to hide my half naked torso. I guess I didn't move fast enough because Daryl had caught a brief glimpse of my dirty white bra and slowed his rubbing for a moment. I wrapped the scratchy material around me, hiding myself inside its musty smell, and thankfully he went back to work.

After another moment he stepped back, "Now yer jeans, they're wet too." He nodded, wiped his hand over the back of his neck and then turned around so I could have a half moment of privacy.

I could barely pull them down over my legs, but when I finally did I encased myself back in the blanket and sighed into the brief warmth, "Alright," I whispered, and he turned back around and motioned me to scoot back on the bed.

"Git under them sheets there," While he said this he started pulling off his own clothes, discarding them on the floor without much care.

I was a pretty decent student back in high school. I had excelled in some subjects, but science had been my forte. Maggie used to tease me that I was going to end up a doctor or something just like our Daddy was. So when he got down to his pair of dirty boxers and tank I knew what he was going to propose we do.

He must have sensed the fear in my eyes because he suddenly looked just as awkward as I felt. "Body heats gonna warm ya up faster," He stated, so matter of fact that I couldn't even open my mouth to argue. All I wanted to do was get warm and get the feeling back in my feet. I didn't think I'd be much use to either of us if he had to amputate my toes.

So reluctantly I shifted back on the bed and crawled under the covers, still wrapped up in the other scratchy top blanket.

Daryl slipped in next to me, his hand gently coming to rest on my hand, "It's gotta be skin to skin, Beth." His voice wavered the slightest.

My hands shook as I slowly peeled back the corner of the blanket and beckoned him to join me. I could hear my heart beating in my ears as he came forward and shifted me so that my back was pressed against his chest.

He closed up the blanket again, wrapping his legs around mine and then breathing heavily into my neck. "Try ta focus on being warm." He mumbled, "Think sunshine or summer or…"

"Beaches?" I added with a shiver, the hair on his legs rubbing against my unshaven calves.

"Yeah beaches…" he hoarsely chuckled.

"and coconuts?" I added.

"I hate coconuts," he snorted, his arm coming over to rest against my bare stomach.

I flinched the slightest, but let him rest it there, relishing in the warmth that his body was providing.

Suddenly with the warmth and the feel of human contact I could feel myself getting sleepy.

"How can ya hate coconuts?" I yawned, "ya aint ever had an Almond Joy?"

"What the hell is an Almond Joy?" His mouth was practically resting on my neck and I felt him yawn.

"Candy bar…used to be my favorite," I yawned again, trying to wiggle my toes which were still frozen solid.

"Ya bought to get frostbite and yer thinkin' 'bout candy bars?" he sucked back a laugh.

"Gotta think of something nice every now and then." The words whispered through my lips and absentmindedly I wiggled back into his warmth even more.

"Don't move so much, Beth," he quickly added, his hand tightening over my belly. "Just – just close yer eyes and try ta git some sleep."

"Alright," I yawned again, thinking of sunshine and coconuts and candy bars. I could almost smell the ocean lapping up on the shores of some far away beach. As my breathing slowed I could still smell those things, warming up my insides and comforting me in a way I hadn't been in a long while; but I could also smell the mixture of woods and dirt and something familiarly Daryl like.

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Yeah, it's going to take awhile before anything significant happens between them, but I figured an after Christmas present was in order. Please leave some feedback and reviews.

**Important Note:** I'm also looking to bring in a few outsiders so as a contest/reward I'm going to ask you guys to name them. I'm looking for two seriously traditional southern names, one male and one female. Both characters will be in their mid 20's. Leave your thoughts in your review and if yours strikes my muse in a good way I'll use your suggestion for the part. Thanks loves!


	6. Chapter 6

**Oh my goodness, thank you so much for your reviews! For those of you who have left names for the future characters, I will be sending a message to you for some character personality bits. I want you to have some input into this story :) Anyway, here is the next chapter... not totally great, but it's suporting the plot line. **

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**I don't know your thoughts these days**  
**We're strangers in an empty space**  
**I don't understand your heart**  
**It's easier to be apart - Keane **

_Chapter 6 – Fix Me _

I woke up to feeling in my toes again. I also woke up to Daryl's fingertips lightly brushing along the edge of my belly button. It sent an involuntary shiver through my body, and he jerked his hand back so quickly that I could have almost imagined that I dreamed it all. He must have been awake because I could feel him shift on the mattress, untangling from the blankets, and then heard him striding back across the room to where he had discarded his clothing the night before.

I waited there quietly, listening to him pull on his pants and then shouldering his crossbow. I didn't move. I couldn't move. We had spent the night snuggled in an embrace that was necessary, but all the same very weird. If we were still in the prison it wasn't like I would have requested Daryl as my savior. I probably would have just asked Glen to watch out for me, I mean, he is my brother in law I guess.

I stirred a bit more, listened to him move about the room, and then heard the door open and close. Getting dressed would have probably been the right thing to do at this moment, but instead I rolled over and pressed my nose into the pillow he had been using last night.

I don't know why, really. I mean it was simply a pillow and in the long run it wasn't like it was going to save me from any pending danger. Still I inhaled, took in the scent of his filth and wetness, it was so Daryl that I chuckled under my breath and wrapped it up in my arms like a safety blanket. It was nice to feel that secure when I was so unsure of everything.

I finally moved from the bed and started reaching for my clothes. They were finally dry enough to put on again and I did so quickly; maybe because I was afraid he'd come walking in, but mostly because I was comforted in the fact that I still had something to wear.

I pulled my sweater over my head and kicked my boots on the ground to make sure they were on tight. They were, course I'd need new laces, but I grabbed my satchel from the floor just in case I walked outside and saw him gone. I mean…I never really knew. He had a right to leave me.

I closed the door behind me and made my way to the staircase, I could see his angel-winged vest from where I was standing on the balcony. I snorted back a laugh again, half amused by his persistence, but I moved down the staircase without calling out. I couldn't do it.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I crossed the lot and came right up behind him, I knew he knew cause his breathing stopped suddenly, but he went right back to work regardless.

"You found a car." I stated, moving forward and leaning over the engine, "you think you can get it started?" course I didn't know nothing about cars and such, and when he tightened something under the hood and wiped his brow I just assumed we were good to go.

"So how much gas do we got?" I asked, "Can we go far on this thing?" I quirked my brow again, waiting for approval.

He snorted, "It aint about fixin' the engine, " he scoffed, "the ignition is shot, and we can either find the parts or find a new car."

It was then that I looked across the lot and surveyed our area.

"So... what about a different car?" I asked, pointing to an old beat up Chevy across the way.

"Already looked at that one…" he mumbled, and continued working on the engine in front of him.

"What can I do?" cause I wanted to do something, I couldn't sit there and just let him do all the hard work. That wasn't how a team worked.

"If ya could git a wrench that would be great," he mumbled, nodding back to the office area, " ther's a toolbox inside, no walkers, I checked it out."

I nodded, stepping back for a moment and watching him work. Yeah, after sleeping against him I wanted to talk, but he wanted a wrench and I wasn't going to argue.

I slipped into the office and wiped my hand over my face. "Get a grip Beth, stop being a child." I mumbled, and then slipped behind the front area and found the toolbox he had been asking for.

I knew what tools looked like; I knew what a wrench looked like. I was far more useful than all the people at the prison held me accountable for. I picked up the wrench and headed back out to Daryl.

"Is this what ya need?" I asked, my voice still quivering the slightest, "There's more tools inside if you need me to get them?"

Daryl merely grunted and then took the tool from my hand.

"If I get this tightened I think we can hot wire it for a decent drive."

"I should get our stuff," I said.

"Yeah, that be good, I guess." His voice was so quiet I wasn't even sure he answered me.

"Ok, I'll be right back."

I wanted to ask him about last night. I wanted to know what he felt about cuddling with me.

He sunk his face into the engine and I slinked away, still too unsure of everything to bring it up myself. I headed back to the staircase.

The staircase was easier this time, maybe because I had feeling in my feet, or maybe cause I just knew where I was going.

I shuffled down the walkway, my gun poking me in the back of my pants. For a moment I stopped to lean over the balcony. Daryl was still working on the car, and he didn't even seem to notice I was gone.

I swallowed hard, moved passed the last couple of rooms, and came to 21. Our room.

I smiled.

Didn't seem like much, but it was ours.

My hand slid over the handle and I pushed it open.

The gun in my face took me by surprise.

"Dar-" I started screaming, but a person's arm tightened over my belly and I felt the harsh knock into my temple.

I was taken into a pair of hands and pulled into the room before I could do anything.

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Ok my loves, please leave some feedback and reviews. If you missed my last note in the last chapter I'm looking for traditonal southern names...one male one female ... they will play a role in the next chapter. If you'd like a bit of creativity in this story then shoot out some male and female names. They will be important!

Thanks for reading!

K Lynn Perks :)


	7. Chapter 7

Hello my lovely readers! Thanks so much for all of your wonderful feedback and reviews. For those of you who submitted some names you will see that they were used in this chapter. Happy New Years to all!

On to the next...

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**We kept it safe and slow**  
**The quiet things that no one ever knows – Brand New**

_Chapter 7 – Safe and Slow_

The hands around my middle held tight with every flailing protest I made. I wanted to bite down on the hand over my mouth, but it was pressed so tightly against my face that I could barely even breathe let alone bite. I kicked my legs out in front of me and another pair of hands came up and held my legs together. Now I've never been a particularly strong girl, after caring for the kids it wasn't like I had the time to stay physically fit like Michonne or even Maggie. But I at least thought I had enough fight in me to loosen the grip and give me a chance to escape.

"Quit your squirming, girl." A gruff voice sounded in my ear, "Don't make us knock you out cause we will." The way he was holding on to me I wouldn't doubt it.

"Now I'm gonna let'cha go, but ya holler once for your old man and I'll knock yer teeth out of yer head, ya got me?"

The hot tears washed some of the grime from my face and slipped in between the cracks of my assailants fingers. I could taste the dirt and wanted to throw up. Instead I nodded, and kept my mouth shut once he released me just enough so I could breathe again.

I figured the worst of it was over, course I should have known better. The barrel of a gun pressed into my temple and nearly had me seeing stars.

"Why you here?" The female in the room finally spoke up, pressing the gun harder into my head. "You looting from us?" She snarled, kicking over Daryl's bag and sending a few arrows to the floor.

"We ain't looting," I sobbed quietly, my heart pounding while the gun barrel cut into my skin, "We just spent the night, we ain't even staying here." I shot it out my mouth so quickly I wasn't even sure if she heard me correctly.

"Then why is your old man taking our tools and swiping our cars?" The male nodded back out the door.

"He ain't my old man," I started, "We got separated from our group…just trying to get back to them…oh god, please…please don't shoot me." I whimpered, suddenly feeling like a pathetic idiot.

"Lower the gun Charlene," the man muttered, leaning over to pick up Daryl's crossbow, "She's just a kid, ain't no threat."

The red headed woman whipped around, maybe only lowering her gun an inch or so, "Ain't no threat? How the hell do you know she ain't no threat?" She whipped her head back in my direction and cocked the gun, "Remember Agatha and her shithead husband," she snorted, "We ought to just end this right now and save ourselves the worry."

I panicked, Daryl was down there with his head under the hood of the car unaware of all the potential danger, and all I could do was stand there and whimper like a child.

"Please," I held my hands out in the man's direction, "please, we ain't trouble…just let us get our stuff and we'll get out of here. We won't bother ya I swear it." My eyes flickered pleadingly to the woman he had called Charlene, and I felt my lips tremble, "please…"

"What the hell is goin' on?"

I recognized Daryl's voice just as the gunshot went off.

For a second I wasn't sure if I was dead.

When I looked over towards the door I saw Daryl on the floor, a wisp of smoke curling from the end of the gun in Charlene's hand.

"No!" I shrieked, pushing by her and dropping to the floor next to Daryl.

Behind me I could hear the man grab for Charlene, "You dumb bitch, that's gonna call a goddamn herd of'em."

"Daryl?" I whispered, my hands working over his vest and then his skin for the bullet hole, "where's the blood? Why ain't there any blood?" I could hear the frenzy in my voice as my fingers worked over him.

"Cause I ain't been shot, Beth." He grumbled, his hand coming up to wipe over his face. He propped himself up on his elbows and glared passed me.

I rested my hand on his knee and turned to look back, the man was pointing Daryl's crossbow down at us.

"Yer lucky, brother, Charlie's a good shot. Rarely misses a target." He gave a harsh throaty chuckle.

"I ain't yer brother." Daryl sneered, shifting a bit and causing my hand to fall from his knee. "That aint yer crossbow." He didn't have to ask for it back; by the tone of his voice it was implied.

"We can still shoot'em Everett, take their shit and get out of here before the creepers get here."

The man called Everett turned towards Charlene, "I said shut the fuck up, woman." He twisted his head to the side and brought his eyes back to us on the floor. With the gun in his left hand he moved it up and scratched at his scalp. "Well this is quite the predicament," he mused, "ya say this is yer crossbow?"

"Yeah and if ya know what's good fer ya ya'll hand it back over."

I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye, "Daryl..." I whispered out his name, hoping he'd get the point to just shut up.

Everett turned the crossbow in his hands, "Mightly fine weapon to be killin' creepers. Bet they never hear it comin'."

"No one hears it comin'" Daryl idly threatened, and I shot him another look that kinda read '_just shut it already'. _

"Now as I see it, ya both show up here in the middle of the night, use our facilities and then plan on jackin' one of our cars."

"We didn't know," I muttered, " we don't need it…if ya just let us go we'll leave the car and – "

Daryl finally got up from the floor, "Like hell we're leavin' the car." He shot me a dirty look, "I just fixed that thang up. It wasn't doin' shit but rottin' in the lot 'fore I got under the hood."

"We were lookin' to fix it ourselves…" Everett nodded back to the door, "We got ourselves a mechanic in our group, we were waitin' till one of ours got over the flu before headin' back out."

I knew my face must have gone white, "The flu?" my voice stammered out.

Daryl took a step towards the two strangers but paused when Everett raised the crossbow again, "Some kinda bug. Been holed up in here till Tammy was ok to travel again. She's eight…not too strong to be movin' in her condition."

And then suddenly the old mothering gene came back to me and I was rising from my spot on the floor and holding my hands up defense.

"We were with a large group, up in the old prison…"

"Beth!" Daryl snarled, but I held my hand up to silence him. If he wanted to dismiss my pleas to keep calm earlier, well to hell with listening to him now.

"A whole bunch of people with us got real sick…some died…it's – it's not like a regular flu. It ain't like a cold that's just gonna go away with a few kisses and naps." I swallowed, "How long has she been sick?" I asked, my hands trembling as Charlene reached for her gun in Everett's hand.

"I ain't trying to start trouble!" I yelled, "You fire more shots at me and more walkers will be here before you can get away. That's especially true if ya got a sick little girl."

Charlene dropped her hand, though her eyes still stayed fixated on me. Like she was trying to bore a hole into my face, "What ya getting at, kid?"

"We had a lot of sick people back at the prison, lot of them didn't make it more than a day or two and they were older and healthy…how long has she been sick?" I asked again, taking another step forward.

Everett cast Charlie a sideways look, practically having a full conversation with her through their facial expressions.

"I want to help!" I blurted out, "My Daddy was good with medicine and we got a lot of our people better."

"Like hell, Beth," Daryl was suddenly at my side, "That's suicide and ya know it. We barely got our lot fixed up and yer gonna do it fer these people?" He pointed over at them, "Ya forget that they just tried to kill me?"

"If I wanted you dead I wouldn't have missed," Charlie snorted back a laugh.

I shifted on my feet and turned my attention back to Daryl, "I gotta do this, Daryl. If I can help a sick little girl then I'm gonna help."

"You can't be serious!" he spat, "you don't even know these people!"

"And my Daddy hardly knew a lot of the people in the cellblock when he went in there to save their lives, but he had a job to do and he did it."

I could see him internally fighting with my decision to help, his hand reaching up and wiping the back of his neck.

"Yer a kid, what the hell do you know about medicine?" Charlene scoffed.

I whipped my head back in her direction, "I know the medicines we need to get the girl better, I know how to set up a make-shift I.V. bag and the dosages that wont kill a small child. I know a lot of shit that I bet your mechanic or your other people don't know about. So stop saying I'm a kid, stop patronizing me when I say I'm here to help you." I felt my stomach surge with a rage that I hadn't felt in a long time.

Maybe it was because I failed Judith, maybe cause I wanted to make it up to my Daddy, but all I knew was that I needed to help this little girl.

I could sense all three older individuals shift back a bit, Daryl's face perhaps the most shocked by my sudden outburst.

Everett spoke up first, "Fine, we could use your help." He mumbled, though I'm pretty sure he said something about me being a hormonal teenage girl under his breath. "We just been feein' her warm broth and water…ain't really doin' much anyway."

"Here's the deal," I felt bolder, more confident than I had imagined I'd ever feel in a room full of armed adults. "I help you fix up Tammy so you all can get out of here in exchange for Daryl's crossbow and your vehicle Daryl was working on?"

Charlene thrust a finger in Everett's direction, "It's a bullshit deal, Everett, I ain't losing a car and weapons just cause Doogie Howser MD thinks she's got some miracle cure."

"Fine," I held up my hands, "But when she chokes on her own blood and dies in the middle of the night, when she turns and kills half your group…will you be able to take out an 8 year old child?"

I could see the fear in Everett's face, the sudden realization that yes, even a child could be turned.

He swallowed, "Ya can have the crossbow and the truck…"

"Good," was my simple reply, "now that wasn't so hard, was it?" I turned to look at Daryl who was staring at me like I had just sprouted elephant ears or something.

"This is bullshit," Charlene mumbled, tugging at strands of her fallen red hair.

"Now how long has Tammy been sick?" I asked again, holding out my hands and beckoning for Daryl's crossbow.

When it was placed in my hands I nearly fell over from the weight, I didn't know how he carried this thing around without constant back spasms.

Carefully I handed it back to him, and then folded my arms across my chest while the two muttered between each other for a moment.

Charlene cleared her throat and cast one more wary look at Everett before turning back to me.

"How long?" I asked again, knowing time was crucial in this case.

"About six days…maybe a week. Can't be sure really."

I nodded, "Take me to her." I said confidently, and then followed the two strangers out the door, somewhere behind me I could hear Daryl cursing under his breath.

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Hope you all enjoyed this installment. Things are about to get even harder for our favorite little couple. Please leave some love in the form of a review :) Next update will be in 2014!


	8. Chapter 8

So I've had this chapter written for awhile. It was one of the ideas that had me spark up this story in the first place. I'm really excited about it, and hope you all enjoy the sweet moment.

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**Angel came down from heaven yesterday**  
**She stayed with me just long enough to rescue - Jimi Hendrix**

_Chapter 8 – Angel_

I leaned over Tammy's bed and rested my hand on her forehead. It was still warm, but over the last four days of caring for her she had broken the high temperature. When I had first stepped into room 12, the place where Charlene and Everett had taken me, the poor girl had looked like a sunken in sweaty mess. She was tiny for her age, looking more like a 5 year old over an 8 year old. Her body barely made a bump in the queen sized bed. She had been wary, couldn't blame her really. If I had been her age I wouldn't trust many people either. I guess it was my gentle voice and smile that she warmed up to quickly, letting me check her over after Charlene gave me the go ahead.

Now she smiled when I walked into the room and pulled the desk chair beside her bed.

"Hey Tammy," I grinned, "How are ya feeling today?" I moved the plastic make-shift I.V. bag out of the way.

I was certainly glad that Daryl had been able to locate some of the essential items in an abandoned drug store. There hadn't been much there for him to take, but it was at least enough for such a small child; any bigger and we might have been in trouble.

"Hi Beth," She murmured groggily, giving me a smile that revealed the space where her two front teeth had fallen out. "Ok I guess, still real tired, but my throat don't hurt much anymore."

That was a good sign.

"Good," I shifted the chair back to the desk and began mixing together the two bitter flu medicines that Daryl had swiped from the shelves. "Now I know this isn't your favorite part, but today's the last day ya got to take this stuff." The two liquids swirled together to make a dark puke looking color. I scrunched my nose in disgust but hid it before turning back to her.

"Ya promise this is the last time?" she quirked her eyebrow, studying my face, I assumed, to see if I was lying.

I chuckled, "Tomorrow you'll just take some aspirin and drink lots of water. That ain't too bad is it?" I scooted forward and urged her to sit up a bit in the bed.

She pursed her lips together in thought, gazed up at me through her haphazardly cut bangs, and then shrugged, "Guess not." She sighed, and then took the little cup of medicine between her hands.

"We'll count together again, ok?" She nodded, "One Mississippi…two Mississippi…three Mississippi…" On three she brought the cup to her lips and took the medicine down. I was impressed with her ability to just swallow it in one shot now compared to the first day I had given her the concoction.

She held out the empty cup and I took it in my hands, "Let's tuck you in tight." I placed the cup on the floor before standing and began pushing the motel blankets in around her body.

"I'm sick of sleepin'" She sighed, shimmying down into the warmth as I moved around her.

"But ya know how good it is for you." The only medicine Daryl could find was a night-time flu remedy which unfortunately made the small girl pass out form exhaustion every time she took it.

She yawned, "Will ya sing me that silly song again?" Her squeaky request had me chuckle under my breath.

Honestly I was getting right sick of the song, but every time I looked down at her adorable little face I couldn't help myself. She reminded me of Mika, bright green eyes and wavy blonde hair. I sang for her the first night to calm her down. Apparently Tammy's mother used to sing to her at bedtime, and when she told me her mother died a year ago my heart bled for her. So I sang it every time she asked for it. The same song my mother used to sing to me when I was feeling scared or depressed.

"Alright," I whispered, brushing her bangs out of her face. I resumed my position back on the chair and pulled it up close to I could take her hand in mine.

I spread her fingers apart, and then grabbed the tip of her thumb with own thumb and index finger.

"Five little monkey's climbing up a tree, one fell off and skinned his knee, momma called the doctor and the doctor said 'see, that's why ya don't go swinging from a tree.'" She giggled and I continued, making my way down each of her fingers until I rested on her pinky, "One lonely monkey climbing up the tree, she fell off and skinned her knee, momma called the doctor and the doctor said 'see…'" I gestured for her to finish, which she did with a yawn and another chuckle.

"Pretty soon ya won't need me to sing any of it. You can sing it for me." I lowered her hand down to her bed and tucked her arm back under the blankets to keep her warm.

Tammy yawned again, and I got up from the chair. I wiped my long hair out of my face and sighed; "Now ya get some rest sweetheart. I'll come back and check on you later."

"Beth?" She turned her face back up to me.

"Yeah?"

"Are you an angel?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "What do you mean honey?"

Tammy wrestled with one of her blankets, "Well, you wear white a lot and ya sing like a sweet bird and you are nice and very pretty…ya must be an angel." She smiled, "And ya made me feel lots better." She yawned, "Ya must be an angel."

I could feel tears spring to the corners of my eyes, "No honey, I'm just – I'm just Beth." I leaned over and kissed her forehead, "Get some sleep."

I watched her scoot into the comforts of her blanket, my eyes still tearing up and making her adorable face blurry; out of focus. I stood there for a while, waiting until I was certain she was asleep before pushing the chair back to the desk and cleaning up the materials I had just used. I pushed them in the trash can, pushed my hair out of my face, and turned to leave.

Daryl was standing in the doorway, his shoulder leaning against the frame while his arms crossed over his chest. For once he was without his crossbow. I hadn't even heard the door open.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked him; suddenly I was embarrassed that he had been watching me deal with Tammy; more embarrassed that he heard me sing the 5 Little Monkey's song.

He didn't move from the doorway, just gave that wolfish Dixon smirk that made my cheeks grow even hotter, " 'Bout three little monkey's in."

I was nervous. Something about the way he was just standing there watching me had my pulse thumping, "She likes it." I defended, "It's just a silly song." I just wanted to get back to room 21 and hide beneath the blankets. Anything would be better than standing in front of Daryl and feeling foolish.

I stepped to the right to duck beneath his elbow and out the door; he stepped in front of me.

"Come on, Daryl." I sighed, stepping to the left and getting blocked by his much bigger body. "I'm tired."

He brought his thumb up to his mouth, biting at the hangnail, " She's right ya know." He mumbled against the skin.

I furrowed my brow. "Right? Right about what?" I stepped back to the right and he stopped me again.

"Ya are like an angel." He looked down at me through his mess of brown hair, "treated this little girl even after everythin' that happened 'tween us and her group." He looked over my head at Tammy.

I felt my chest swell up with a little bit of pride. It wasn't every day that Daryl willingly gave out compliments to people. My eyes suddenly felt more comfortable staring at the ground instead of his face. I nudged my toe against the floor awkwardly.

" I ain't no angel, I just did what I had to do."

I knew he had stepped away from the door frame; I mean I could practically see how his boots touched the tips of my own.

"Ya didn't have ta do anythin', Beth." He mumbled, "Ya know we could'ave waited till they let their guard down 'fore takin' off."

I shrugged my shoulders and made a noise.

"I was wrong ta try and make ya leave." He continued.

This declaration had me lifting my gaze to meet his. I knew he was close, but I wasn't aware how close he was until I tilted my head back and practically bumped his nose with my own. If I moved forward, even a half inch, I could have kissed him. Not that I was planning on kissing him, but the proximity made me abundantly aware how I probably hadn't brushed my teeth in a few days.

" It's ok," I shook my head, "No use worrying about it now. Tammy's almost better and then we can head back out on the road." I had enough room to slip by him now. For some reason I remained grounded to the spot.

In all those dumb romantic movies Maggie had me watch back at the farm the girl always said something stupid before getting kissed by the handsome guy. Seemed like in all those movies the girl would give up something she loved doing or being…or just plain changing herself so that she'd end up with the main guy. Maggie liked the movies for the sex scenes; I despised the movies because they made women look so weak. Why'd they have to give up on something in order to be happy?

And for a second, while I stood there in front of Daryl, I was glad I had stood up for what I believed was right. I didn't let him change who I was just cause he was a man and I was woman and he was _supposed_ to be the one protecting me.

I blushed again once I realized I was thinking about romantic movies and Daryl Dixon in the same thought process.

Daryl's hand twitched at his side. I normally wouldn't have noticed it, but I happened to lower my face at the same exact moment. My hair tumbled down around my shoulders, hiding my eyes and the sudden flushed look I knew was on my face.

His hand twitched again, but this time he brought it up carefully and lifted my chin. He looked at me. Seriously honestly looked at me. My breath hitched in my throat as he ran calloused fingertips across my cheek and then tucked a few stands of my hair behind my right ear.

"Yer Daddy would'ave been proud of ya." He mumbled.

His hand lingered behind my ear longer than necessary; goose bumps suddenly breaking out across my skin and making me feel chill.

"You think so?" I whispered, my face involuntarily turning just so he could brush his fingers across my skin even more.

He smiled that Dixon smile again, his hand quickly dropping from my face and shoving deep into the pocket of his jeans.

"Yer somethin' else, Beth." He gave a raspy chuckle, and then stepped out of the way so I could pass.

Standing there any longer would have made me look even more ridiculous than I felt. My ears burned in embarrassment, and I quickly high tailed it out of the room before I did something else to make me feel stupid.

I practically fell into room 21, closing the door behind me and resting my back against the comforts of solitude.

What the hell was I thinking?

I ran my hand over my forehead and felt for a fever. Maybe I was getting sick? Maybe Tammy's flu had worked its way into my system?

Whatever it was, I had rubbed my face against Daryl's hand and I couldn't take that back.

Then again, he had called me an angel…

He couldn't take that back either.

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As always thank you so much for reading! Please review cause it fuels my muse! Have any suggestions? I'm always listening to what you guys have to say!


	9. Chapter 9

**SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE: **Gonna spend a brief moment giving a brief shout out to some reviewers who have made me so insanely happy with their love.

_**Thank you:**_

saraah97, Tkhosse, DarylDixon'sLover, NormanReedusLover, Verostar1221, zombiecinema, , mamareadstomuch2, Mione788, pharmtechgrl71, peenislover, ruger33 and Dollyrocker85.

New reviewer or consistent reviewer...you have continuously fueled my flame and made me work hard to get this chapters up fast. Thank you so much.

If I have forgotten you in this batch of thanks just let me know. i want to acknowledge all of you! Sometimes Im in a rush and just miss names.

Anyway, on to the next...

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**"Hear the wind sing a sad old song **

**It knows I'm leaving you today**

**Please don't cry or my heart will break **

**When I go on my way..." - Demis Roussos **

_Chapter 9 – Hello – Goodbye_

"Are you sure you need to go?" Charlene asked, looking over at Daryl who was already standing by the driver's side door of the truck.

"We gotta look for our people." Daryl replied quietly. He'd never give more information than that…even if we had been staying with them for more than two weeks now.

I merely nodded along with him, although my heart was still hoping that they'd decide to join us in the journey.

Finally I backed into the door of the truck and held my hand out to Charlie, even after what happened I had at least learned she was a trustworthy gal. I liked her. She was tough to break through to at first, but after awhile she broke down into a woman who just wanted a friend. She kind of reminded me of Maggie. Maybe that was why it was so hard for me to leave her at the motel.

"I'm sorry we have to get going like this."

Charlie sighed, " Me too…but I'd want to get back to my family if I thought they were out there somewhere." Her eyes flickered to the ground.

I had learned pretty early on that Charlie had lost her mother and father just as the outbreak occurred. They had been out at some bonfire party, and they never came home. She never saw corpses. She never saw anything. One night she had confided in me that she wished she had at least seen them go. It would have been some sort of closure to what she had nightmares about every single night.

Course I could never agree.

Sometimes I thought she was lucky.

Avoiding it all sounded nice.

Sometimes I wished I had never seen my mother or father die.

"I never got to tell you how sorry I am for holdin' a gun on ya." She added, sucking back a short laugh.

I snorted, "If ya didn't hold a gun on me I'd probably have thought you were right crazy." I paused, "maybe I never would have threatened ya like I did." I smiled.

The exchange made both of us laugh silly hard and we embraced before we could say anything else to make the goodbyes worse.

Good-byes.

Seemed like it was all we were ever capable of saying these days.

I looked over at Daryl but he was busy shoving some last minute things into the back of the truck. If anyone hated goodbyes more than I did, well it was Daryl.

"He ain't gonna say much," I mumbled to Charlene, chuckling again and shaking my head, "but if I had to guess, he'd want to say nice goodbye too."

Charlene nodded, reached out and grabbed my elbow. "Hey, I know his kind, I know what he means." Her eyes flickered over to him, "He's the sort ya want to have around by yer side all the time. Genuine… ya know?" she smiled, pressing down on my elbow and grinning again. "kind of reminds me of my pops."

I chanced a peek over the hood of the truck and looked at Daryl. He was busy talking to Everett, pointing off into the woods, and then back down the road again. If I'd have to guess they were exchanging game plans for the future; maybe it was some elaborate plan to meet up eventually. Not that he'd ever really share that with me, but with Daryl, well, you never really knew.

"Daryl's a great man," I added, looking back at Charlie with a smile, "saved my life more than a thousand times."

She bit her lip, still holding on to me, and then moved in a bit closer, "Sorry I assumed he was yer old man."

I backed up a bit, furrowed my brow, and laughed.

"It ain't a big deal. Loads of people would have thought that." I laughed uneasily.

She chuckled again, " Yeah I know, but it took me a bit to realize he's yer's, ya know?"

By this point I felt my mouth drop open and hang there for more than a minute or so.

"Charlie, I think ya might have come down with a bit of Tammy's flu." I laughed, released my elbow from her grip, and stepped back.

"Come on Beth," Her eyes sparkled something fierce and I swallowed hard, "I see the way you've been looking at him. Jesus, I've seen the way he looks at you." She laughed again.

I didn't laugh at all.

In fact I felt that weird fluttery feeling rise up in me again and I wanted to hit her for making me think it all.

"I don't look at him like anything." I defended; crossing my arms over my chest and holding them there defiantly.

Charlie laughed once again, this time loud enough to draw the attention of Daryl and Everett.

"What you two gals cackling 'bout over there?" Everett asked.

"Girly things," Charlene popped back, "Don't you worry yer pretty head about it."

Luckily the men turned back to the woods and kept pointing at things to keep them busy.

I stepped forward, "There ain't nothing between me and Daryl, Charlene." I whispered to her again, this time forcefully so she'd know I meant business.

I mean, I did mean business.

Daryl and I were a team but that was it. Wasn't anything else, right?

It wasn't like I was sitting in some dark corner pining over the scruffy idiot.

Charlene chuckled for the hundredth time it seemed, leaned forward, and kissed me on my cheek. "Alright darlin', whatever ya want to say to make it easier."

What the hell did that mean?

Even the subtle swear in my head made my eyes widen a bit, and I could see her laughing under her breath even more. Before I even had the chance to retort Daryl was yelling at me to get in the car, and Charlene was waving me off like my mother used to do before Jimmy and I would head out on our dates.

"We can't really thank ya more than we already have," Charlene mumbled, reaching out and taking Everett by the arm as he slinked around our side of the car; she chanced a moment by looking back at Tammy who was standing with her friend David.

I smiled; still sore to see them behind us, but when I finally got into the passenger seat I knew we had to move on. We had to look for the others. I had to look for Judith.

"Wait!" a shrill voice came from the back of the group, and little Tammy pushed through the rest of them and stood beside my door.

I didn't want to do this. I couldn't say goodbye. Daryl told me it would be difficult, and now while I looked at her I knew it was so very true.

"Ya can't just leave me." She mumbled, fighting back tears in her eyes.

It was almost like losing Judy all over again; though this time I'd at least know she was with safe people.

I tossed my glance over to Daryl, hoping he could say something while this young girl bled her heart out to me. My bottom lip was quivering. I wasn't sure I'd be able to look back at her and even give her a proper goodbye.

Daryl thankfully spoke for me, "Yer safer here with Charlie, kid." And she was. I wanted to believe she really was.

If we were out on the road searching for ours, I couldn't be caring for an eight year old who had just come back from the flu. It wasn't safe. Besides, I trusted Charlie now. I knew Tammy was in good hands.

"Beth?" Her eyes switched over to me again, her green eyes watering up and screaming for me to take her; and I wanted to take her.

I wanted to scoop her up into my arms and whisk her away somewhere with me. Somewhere that may not have been safe but at least I'd know where she was.

"Ya got to listen to Daryl honey." Though my choked up voice didn't help. "Charlie and Everett will protect you." I sucked back a sob, "Plus ya can't leave David on his own." I nodded to the boy behind her.

Her hands pulled at the window, "what ya mean?"

I chortled, "He may be eleven, but he needs you to protect him too." I leaned through the window, "We girls got to protect the boys every now and then."

She pursed her lips up in thought; just like she had done all the days I had given her the medicine to keep her alive.

"Guess ya are right, Beth," she still snorted, wiping her hand over her runny nose. "David aint that good looking out for himself."

I laughed.

She leaned in even further, "Yesterday he hit his head on the desk top when I asked him to get me my shoes." She rolled her eyes, "He almost cried."

I wanted to laugh again, but it came out as more of a choked snivel. I was glad that Daryl began moving the car forward forcing her to back up a bit towards Charlie.

"You'll be fine, Tammy…I know ya will." I whispered out.

My lip trembled, and Daryl revved the engine one more time to insinuate we had to get going.

"You go back there with David," I sighed, reaching out of the window to stroke her hair one last time as she ran up and touched my other arm.

She nodded, her hand brushing over mine one last time before stepping back.

"Be safe Tammy…" I whispered; Daryl put the truck in drive and gestured to Everett who had positioned himself behind the car.

She smiled, held out her hand, and wiggled her fingers for me.

I heard her voice once we started driving away.

"_Five little monkeys climbing up a tree, one fell off and skinned her knee…momma called the doctor and the doctor said 'See, that's why monkey's…"_

I burst into tears before we rounded the corner and lost sight of the motel.

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I know this was a short one, but it is a stepping stone towards the next bit of excitement for our couple. If you are itching for the hookup, well, let me be the first to say that I am a sucker for chapter 10. It's a nice round number, seems like a good stepping stone...yeah we will see some real stuff finally happen... *wink*

**REVIEWS PLEASE: **Please leave some feedback as always. Let me know in a review if you'd like to see anything interesting happen, if not, well I'll leave you cookies for a short review anyway :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Oh goodness, I love you all like crazy. Thank you for the kind words. Today is the birthday of the great Norman Reedus so I wanted to get this chapter up in honor of his day. **

**Enjoy...**

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**"You wish that they hadn't, you don't wanna be alone...**  
**But they wanna kiss" -Regina Spektor**

_Chapter 10 – Maytag Washing Machine_

I had expected Daryl to tell me to stop crying at least twenty times once we left the motel. When he actually reached over and placed his hand on my knee about an hour into our drive I suddenly felt the urge to stop sobbing like a child. Lord, he must have thought I was some kind of fool getting all wrapped up in a few people we had barely known for fifteen days. I wiped the tears under my eyes and shifted myself in the passenger seat. My movements must have knocked some sense back into him because he quickly retracted his hand from my leg and went back to concentrating on the road. My mind drifted back to what Charlene had said and I was glad to see his hand go. I wasn't in the mood to have my emotions swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

We avoided the highway; headed through the back roads to the North. This had always been our plan if anything happened at the prison. The bus was supposed to drive due North for 2 hours before stopping. Daryl figured that if we followed the back roads, stayed in line with the trees to our right, we'd have to bump into someone eventually. I had suggested we head back to the prison to look for stragglers, but he convinced me that the only stragglers there were walkers.

I was kinda glad he turned down my idea. The thought of possibly seeing my Daddy's body lying there on the ground had me thinking all sorts of awful nightmare-ish scenarios.

"Wonder how long we've been driving for?" I broke the silence, tilting my head out of the window a bit to look up at the sun. "Gotta be the afternoon by now." I squinted; holding my hand up to my forehead to block some of the bright rays.

I could hear him rustling around in the driver seat beside me, "Here," I glanced back and saw him holding out something black. "Everett said he found a few o'these in some of the rooms."

In his hand was a black digital watch.

"Surprised the things still even works, but guess it had a good battery." He snorted, "Probably some rich assholes watch."

Slinking my head back into the car I leaned over and grabbed the watch from his hand. It was definitely a man's watch. The thick band of leather practically screamed cowboy. I flipped it over and glanced down at the time, "It's almost two." I sighed, and held it between my two fingers to hand it back to him. My finger must have hit one of the buttons on the side because the time had changed and a new set of numbers popped up on the screen.

I yanked the watch back just as his hand brushed against mine.

"Wait a second,"

"Ya can just keep it if ya want." He offered.

"It'd be too big on my wrist," I mumbled, and I felt his eyes turn to look at me; taking me in. I couldn't stop the heat that rose at the back of my neck. I hated when he looked at me like that.

I brought the face of the watch up to my nose, inspecting it as if I was reading some foreign text book in class, "It's a calendar!" I exclaimed a bit too fervently. Daryl swerved the car and it jolted me into his side and then back into the passenger door.

"Christ, ya don't have to scream it at me." He straightened the car out and looked back over. "So what? Ya'ave a hot date ya got ta get to?" He snorted.

Without thinking I turned to him and playfully smacked him in the arm, "No ya jerk, it's got today's date all lit up! Today's November 12th! It's 2010!"

Daryl snorted, "Guess we should start gettin' our holiday shit in order." He rested his arm out the window and laughed, obviously amused by his own joke.

I had tuned him out right after that, staring down at the black leather fixture in my hands.

"I can't believe it's been two years." I mumbled.

"Well believe it." He gestured out in front of us as a walker clambered on down the road. "Ain't no reason ta try and deny it."

"Guess it's just weird to see it when it's shoved right in my face." I sighed, "I missed my birthday again this year." I pressed the button until the calendar was back to September, "It would have been on a Wednesday."

He brought his thumb up to his mouth and started gnawing, "What day?"

"The 15th," I held out the watch, "Here, take it, you wear it." Although I couldn't imagine Daryl wearing something so expensive looking.

Just like I thought, he slid it into his pocket without another glance.

There was a long pause after that. Daryl merely concentrated on the road and I watched the trees as they zipped by the car. I should have been on the lookout for walkers or something, but all I could think about was how easy things had been two years ago. I leaned my elbow on the window ledge and propped up my chin in my hand. Everything outside just seemed so empty and dead. In the past I would have found that simply tranquil and wonderful. Now it was just sad.

"How old did ya turn?" He broke the silence.

"What?" I turned from the window.

"On yer birthday, how old did ya turn?"

"Oh um, 19…I turned 19." Saying it out loud made it all the more strange.

"Sorry we missed it." He added.

That must have been the extent of his caring curiosity because he merely grunted out a noise and went back to driving in silence.

When we approached a street sign, not too long after the whole watch discussion, Daryl made a left so we could keep the trees on our right.

"Bus might'ave gone through here." His voice woke me from my trance and I pulled my eyes away from the trees.

We hit one of those residential areas; the ones where the houses were fairly close to each other, and people barely had yards to run around in. I never understood why people would want to live right on top of each other. How were you supposed to have any privacy when people could just stare right through your windows?

Course people round here had one thing we didn't have out on the farm.

"You think we could gather some supplies from those garages?" I quirked my brow hoping that he'd agree.

Sure we had barns and loads of places to store things, but I could recall the few times I'd be invited to some friends' houses on the weekends. They had garages, and garages seemed to have so many more treasures then our boring old barn did.

Daryl pursed his lips together, "Might not be a bad idea." He slowed the truck down to a crawl." I knew he was looking for walkers.

I kept my eyes peeled for our family.

"Seems a'right." He muttered and pulled the car to a complete stop. He shifted in his seat and grabbed his crossbow, "We go in and look for supplies, ya stay right with me, ya got it?"

I nodded.

"Don't go wanderin' off no where." He reached over and placed his hand on my hip; he flicked his finger at my knife. Too bad I had practically jumped out the door at first touch. "Ya make sure ya can reach yer knife quick in case we get stuck."

I was holding my breath until he removed his hand from the knife on my hip.

I guess my lack of response wasn't ideal.

"Christ Beth, ya listenin' to me at all?" He wiped his free hand over his face, "Ya can't be this stupid if ya wanna survive." He opened up his door and removed one of the empty bags we found at the motel.

"Sorry," I finally mumbled, and let myself out. I grabbed the backpack that Charlene had given me and slung it over my shoulder.

"Yeah," he readied his crossbow and nodded towards the house behind me, "well just pull yer head out yer ass and start payin' attention," he hissed under his breath.

I didn't argue or protest. Here he was trying to make sure we'd be safe and all I could focus on was how he had touched my hip. Well, he had touched my knife.

But it wasn't the first time he had found a reason to touch me over these last few weeks together. Every now and then there was a casual brush of his hand, or a reason to nudge me with his shoulder, and …

_What the hell is wrong with you? _I yelled to myself, biting down hard on my lower lip that I almost drew blood.

What did it matter how he touched me? What did it matter how often he did it? Getting flustered over physical contact with Daryl wasn't going to find Judith or the rest of the group. It wasn't going to do anything but probably make him think I was some ridiculous hormonal teenage girl.

I don't know how I managed to follow him to the first house, but when he tapped on the front door he gestured for me to join him by his side.

"Ya think ya can handle being my girl?"

"What?" I stammered out.

He looked agitated, "Said think ya can handle followin' me, girl?"

Lord now I was hearing things.

I knew he saw the blush in my cheeks because he smirked and knocked on the door again. "Follow close...gonna do a slow walk through then head ta the garage."

I nodded, still feeling a little bit flushed, but at least more aware of what we were doing. I pulled my knife from my belt loop and took a breath. He waited a moment more, put his hand on the knob and then entered the house. I followed closely at his heels, my knife held up in the defensive stance that he had showed me back at the motel.

He gestured to the front sitting area which was to our right, and while he entered I kept my body slightly turned to the room opposite us. From what I could tell it looked like a dining room. I glanced back at Daryl, the silence pounding down around me as if warning us that something just wasn't right. I've had this sort of feeling before; a feeling of worry or trouble right before it was bound to happen. I lightly tugged on Daryl's shirt and nodded to the staircase behind to our left. He shook his head and held a finger to his lips, paused outside a door, and then mouthed the word kitchen.

He held up a finger, waited for me to nod, and pushed inside ready to fire at anything that came at us.

There wasn't anything at all. We waited a moment more; waited to see if something came bursting through the kitchen door at us.

I felt myself breathe again when he started motioning for us to raid the cabinets for food. So I did. I opened up a few of the cabinets over the stove and was surprised to actually find anything decent left. A few cans of fruit were shoved in the back corner, a packet of graham crackers and two jars of baby applesauce. The picture of the adorable baby on the jar had me swallow hard, but I shoved it all in my bag and moved on to the next.

I looked back at Daryl who had found an empty plastic bottle, something we could definitely utilize in the future. He also pulled out a hunting knife and some tape. I didn't know what the tape would be good for, but it couldn't hurt having it. I gave him quick thumbs up and then quickly realized how childish that must have looked. I quickly dropped my thumb and went back to the cabinets.

A crash from the main room had us both pause and stare at the kitchen door. It was the groaning I heard first and Daryl grabbed me by the arm and started shuffling me backwards.

"Did ya close the front door behind ya?" He snapped in my ear.

Shit.

I had been so ready to defend him and prove my worth that closing the front door behind me must have slipped my mind.

"I thought I did!" I whispered back, holding my knife up with all intentions of slashing at the first thing through that door.

The moaning was louder now. I knew what one walker sounded like when it shuffled along by itself. When I used to walk the perimeter of the prison I'd sometimes come across a straggler that got separated from the herd. The noise I was hearing from the other room was not just one walker. Daryl must have sensed that too because he was suddenly looking around the kitchen for somewhere to go. Our eyes both settled on the door at the side of the kitchen simultaneously.

He held his finger to his lips again, and gestured towards the door.

I stared at him while he moved us towards the door, his eyes conveying that wild fury that both thrilled and scared me. He had that look on him all winter before we found the prison. The look that usually meant he was ready to do anything to keep the group safe. This time he was only keeping me safe. The prospect of being the sole person he was looking out for had my heart pumping fast again.

He opened the other door just a crack; enough for him to look inside and then quickly shove me through. If I had been ready for the shove I might not have tripped over my own feet. If I didn't trip over my own feet I might not have knocked into the old Maytag washing machine. The crash was loud. Too loud.

Daryl was pulling the door shut behind him and pitching us into utter darkness.

The only thing in the small room was the washing machine and a few shelves. It was a tight fit. Even in the dark I could sense how close he was to me.

"Daryl I'm…" I was going to apologize, again, but his hand came up over my mouth and pressed hard. His body pressed up against me, pushing my butt against the washing machine and leaving very little space for either of us to fit.

On the other side of the door I could hear the walkers. The snapping of their broken jaws and teeth had me shaking against Daryl, and he slinked his other arm around me and held me steady.

The brush of his hand on my lower back had me gasping against his hand, and even though I couldn't see him in the dark I knew he probably had that cocky grin on his face.

Here I was hiding from walkers who were mere feet away, the possibility of them bursting through the door and ripping off our faces, and all I could concentrate on was the rush of intense throbbing between my legs as Daryl held me against him.

My breathing was short and raspy against his hand, and I was almost certain that he could feel my heart hammering against his chest.

My eyes started to adjust to the dark; just enough that I could begin to make out his face above mine. I'd have put money down that he was probably looking back towards the door listening for the walkers, but as things began to come to focus I could see him looking right back down at me.

"No Beth," he whispered so softly that it barely carried through the small space. He moved his hand away from my mouth and dragged his fingertips behind my neck.

He didn't have to explain. I knew what he was saying no to.

I licked my lips, "No what?" I tried to play it cool; as if all the things Charlene had said weren't swimming in my head.

No Daryl wasn't mine, and I sure as hell wasn't his, but damn, right here pressed up against him like this I wanted him something fierce.

He finally tore his gaze from mine, his hand moving from my neck and trailing back down to his side. The space between us was nil and as his hand made its way to his pocket his knuckles grazed my right breast.

I shuttered again, his knuckles now resting along my stomach.

His thumb moved forward and pressed against my belly, suddenly making small circles over my shirt. "I can't Beth." He mumbled again, although this time I was certain I could hear the hitch in his throat.

He was sliding his hand down my belly now, pausing once he reached my hip and gripped onto my bony side with his thick calloused hands.

"Daryl?" I whispered his name through barely parted lips, hating that I was feeling this way, but feeling more alive than I had felt in a very long time.

I wasn't expecting his mouth to suddenly press down against mine, but once it did everything in the room went white. It was like the room had exploded in flashes; electrical pulses coursing through my skin and sending every vibrant feeling to the pit of my stomach. The sensation washed over me, curling my toes and making my legs quiver as he held on to me. I parted my lips and dragged my teeth along his lower lip, causing him to tighten his grip on my hip and press himself even harder against me. I could feel his knee come up and part my legs, creating just enough room for him to press himself against me even more. It was as if he was trying to remove any space left between us. It was like fire; flames lapping at my skin while the cool metal of the Maytag washing machine pressed against my back.

My hand traveled up into his hair, and I wrapped my fingers around his dirty locks, tugging his head down more as he deepened the kiss; our tongues finally pressing against each other and making me moan into his mouth.

Suddenly he was pulling away from me, breathing heavily against my face before shoving me back hard against the washing machine and placing his hand on the doorknob. He shouldered his crossbow as much as he could, gave me a look that scared me to the spot, and then quickly retreated out into the kitchen.

Out into the danger.

Away from me.

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**Well there was the first of many kisses. Unfortunately poor Daryl isn't very good with all that physical stuff. Please leave a review and let me know what ya think. I will probably have another chapter up by Wednesday. **

**Thanks in advance for your love and support of this story!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Once again, I love you all. This is kind of a in between moment...not much happens but it will bring about the next big plot. Enjoy my loves. **

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** "Try to make my heart break**  
**But I was told you'd call me tonight**  
**They're calling my name..." - Brand New **

Chapter 11 – Baby Baby

"Oh my goodness…" I whispered, my hands slinking up into my hair and tugging at strands to make sure I was actually awake.

I pushed my back against the washing machine, sliding down to the floor so I could curl myself up into a ball and just die. Even if I tried to figure out what had just happened I wasn't certain any of it would make sense. Daryl had kissed me. My fingers brushed over my lips, lingering there as the rough sensation slowly subsided. He kissed me. I kissed him back. We had kissed each other.

For that brief second everything that was wrong with the world seemed to wane. It didn't matter what was on the other side of that door. I just wanted to press myself into his body and lose myself just for a moment.

And then he left me.

As fast as it had happened it ended, and I felt like the biggest fool. Damn Charlene for putting ideas into my head. Damn Daryl for making me feel things I shouldn't be feeling.

I dropped my head down to my knees and took a much-needed deep breath. What the hell was I supposed to say to him now? Do I bring it up? Do we pretend it didn't happen?

The door whipped back open, my hand immediately reaching for the knife at my hip. Daryl hovered in the doorway covered in a mess of blood and guts. His jaw was clenched tight, hands still holding his crossbow up in a defensive stance.

"Come on." He muttered, turning his back on me before I even got up from the floor.

I could slightly see over his shoulder, the three walkers who had gotten into the kitchen were sprawled out on the floor. Still all I could think about was Daryl's mouth against my own, but I didn't want to make a big deal about it. I mean, how awkward would that be? How could I think about kisses when there were bodies all around me? It was sick.

_Oh hey I just wanted you to know I loved that you ripped those bodies apart…._

Yeah, that seemed so sexy.

I pushed myself up from the ground and followed him out of the closet and into the house again. He was busy picking up his bag and then moving back out towards the door. I followed. I picked up my bag and pushed it over my shoulder. I looked at him and sighed. Guess I could have said something more encouraging for our voyage like _'hey lets go to the garage and get more shit'_ or _'hey why don't we check upstairs'. _Course every time I opened my mouth I just wanted to ask him to kiss me again. Lord, I was just asking for it.

Once we got back outside I slipped my backpack tighter to my shoulder and followed him back to the car, "Should we check any other houses?" I asked, seriously wondering if we may find something that could help us out. I wasn't trying to get us alone again. I didn't want all that negative stuff raining down on me! I swear!

But the longer he looked at me…the longer he licked his bottom lip…

The more I wondered just what those kisses meant to him.

I started fumbling with the strap of my bag again.

"Forget that shit," he mumbled, moving around the truck and motioning me back to the passenger seat, "Just…just forget everything…" he sighed, "Let's just get going again…"

I nodded, pulling the door open and deciding to ignore what had just happened between us. If he didn't want to talk about it, well I wasn't going to bring it up. It was already making me feel things I hated. I opened up the passenger side door and wondered how awkward our drive would be after this.

"Put your hands behind your head!" Yelled a female voice, not one I recognized, but firm enough that I felt my stomach drop, my knife hit the ground beside my foot.

Both of us stumbled out the doors, me grabbing onto the side of the car and steadying myself.

I looked over at Daryl and he nodded for me to do what the voice said; putting his owns hands behind him and then turning towards the voice. When he was compliant…I was nervous. I didn't like when he was nervous.

I slipped my right hand behind my ear, my left slipping my small army knife deep down into my jeans, close to my underwear. I pushed it so far down that I was afraid I'd cut off my own genitalia. I quickly brought my hand back up towards my head and held it there.

I slowly turned towards the voices, my eyes taking in four men and one woman.

They looked young, rested; they looked much better than I felt.

"We don't want no trouble." Daryl started.

"Yeah, no trouble." I added, hoping my tears would convince them to move on.

" Don't matter," the man with the shotgun started, " just keep yer hands behind yer head and when I tell ya to move forward, ya do so."

I looked over at Daryl. He gave me a wink, although I wasn't sure if it was meant to be comforting or not. All I knew was that I felt sick to my stomach. After facing the flu, facing walkers, facing the governor... facing each other… I just wanted to sleep and forget that we were even in this predicament.

"Two houses over." One of the men grunted, nodding towards a house and then pushing a gun up into my back. "that's where your going...start walking..."

I didn't even know how he got there. All I knew was that if I was about to die I wanted to tell Daryl I was sorry. I just wanted him to know I wouldn't have kissed him back unless it was real.

But when the bullets didn't come, and the pain in my back only grew more, I knew that maybe I'd be able to save my declaration for another day.

"What do you want from us?" I asked, twisting my arms and trying to get out of the older man's hold.

"We want you to tell us where yer from, doll." The elder man snarled, laughing when he looked at the woman beside him.

"He aint really that mean," the girl finally spoke up, laughing a bit, and then flicking at a strand of hair and looking off towards a bunch of houses, "we just like to know about all the people who show up around here."

I watched as Daryl pulled against his restraints, I pulled against my restraints; we both would have made a move to run if we could break loose…we both failed again. I was dragged across a lawn behind Daryl, my legs flailing in front of me. "We don't want any trouble!" I cried, hoping that would convince them to let us go.

I was wrong.

I was pulled into the next house by a man who looked a lot like Charlie Sheen. He was bloated; old…had a lot of wrinkles in his dark hair line that gave his real age away. Daryl was dragged in beside me by a woman who I swore was Jane Lynch. Course I figured that during a zombie apocalypse she'd be singing some ridiculous song about how she was the next messiah. Guess I was wrong. She wasn't wearing a track suit.

"How did you get here?" Charlie Sheen asked; bringing me over to a table inside the house and watching me wipe out on the floor as he threw me.

It hurt. My body hitting the hard wooden floor; I wasn't ready for it.

"Just driving through," I spilled; his foot coming down hard on my back, " We just want to get through here and find our family."

Daryl was busy fighting off the two men who dragged him into the house; I could have sworn he promised to rip their eyes out.

"How do we know you wont fuck us over?" One of the men said. His gun was pressed to my head.

"Leave her alone!" Daryl yelled; pulling against the man holding him and knocking another to the floor.

It was at this moment we could have escaped.

The man let me go and I had enough time to pull myself up and make a dash for the door.

"Daryl!" I yelled, coming up on my knees and trying to get to him.

"Go" he yelled, and I could have made it to the door when a small voice rose out above them all.

"Ma..ma.."

My knees gave out before I could reach for the doorknob; my heart knew who it was before I could even say anything.

I turned my face slowly, all the while hoping that Daryl had managed to stay alert. When I finally felt his arm on my shoulder I started crying.

"Beth?" He mumbled in my ear, pushing me forward towards the voice, "Beth…fuck Beth!" He shoved me hard in the back, and I fell at the feet of a woman with short brown hair.

She stood in a stairway, her arms wrapped around the sweetest baby I knew.

"I'm…I'm Tara…" she mumbled, she looked down at the baby in her arms, the child all the while held her tiny chubby arms out to me.

I looked up at her and started crying harder, "Judy?" I ripped the baby from her and smothered her into my chest. I felt Daryl's arms wrap around me, taking me in and covering me from all the shit from outside.

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**ok my dears, leave some feedback...leave some love! Gonna have a huge twist coming up so let me know if there is anything you'd like to see in this story before that twist hits. **

**For all those who forgot, Tara was the sister of Lily who the Gov was with at the end of the 4th mid season finale. She disappeared before we saw what happened to her so Im taking the creative muse and saying she is the one who saved Judy. Let me know what you think!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey all! Thanks for all the wonderful words and such. Read the comments after the chapter update to take part in an exclusive fan based writing contest!**

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**"You think your days are uneventful**  
**And no one ever thinks about you**  
**She goes her own way" - Keane**

_Chapter 12 – Damn Your Silence_

I could feel his arms around me. Even with Judy pressed into my chest I could feel him pressing against my back. I blushed, cradling my face into the child without a care in the world. I didn't care what the other people thought, if they wanted to kill me, well that would be fine. At least I had her with me, and at least we'd die together. I'd rather have that than have her die alone.

Her fingers gripped my hair, tugging and pulling strands and making me laugh. Yeah, I was laughing while guns were being pointed at me. I didn't care. It was the first time I finally felt whole again.

The voices behind me would have normally made me nervous, but with Daryl behind me, holding on to both of us, I felt safe. It didn't matter what was going on. Hell, these men could have been plotting our demise and all I wanted to do was feel the three of us wrapped up together as one. Maggie would have said it was a weak moment. My father would have said I was doing the right thing. _Protect her! _ He would whisper, and for a moment I swore I heard his voice in my ear.

I was glad I always listened to my father first.

"Give the kid back," yelled Jane Lynch, her gun pointing down at me. "Give her back and we wont shoot you both."

Daryl finally pulled away from me, my back suddenly feeling the cool air from the room. With Judith in my arms I looked up at Tara. I could remember her if I tried really hard. I remembered her standing next to the Jeep by the tank when my father was killed. I remembered her face when the Governor went mad. I remembered how scared she looked. She reminded me of…well….me. I almost felt sorry for her.

"Tara?" I whispered, my fingers still digging into Judith's form, "I know you didn't want to be there." I said; looking up at her while I desperately clung to Judith.

She opened her mouth, closed it, and then looked over at the man to her left. He snorted and held his gun higher.

"She told us you shot at her group."

"She killed ours first." Daryl replied, his eyes on the Charlie Sheen look alike.

Slowly, with Judith in my arms, I pushed myself from the floor and hovered there. My knees felt weak, my body was shot, and my emotions seemed to be doing something that made me want to scream at the top of my lungs.

Judith's hands pushed up into my hair and face; all the while she was mumbling things that sounded so much like the word Mama. I wanted to run away and cradle her forever. I just wanted it to be us, somewhere safe, where she could grow up and be happy for a small moment of her life.

When I looked over at the one man in front of me he spit on the floor.

I guess it just wasn't our day.

And suddenly, as if this was the best idea I could come up with, I yelled out.

"He's her father!"

I nodded between Judith and Daryl.

The entire group turned to look at me; Daryl included.

It was silent.

So I opened my mouth again. I should have learned better.

"He's her father and he needs her back." I stated firmly, "Tara's group slaughtered our camp…even if she saved the baby …even if she didn't want to do it, well, Judy is still Daryl's child." I swallowed, "She's his."

I could feel Daryl's eyes burn hard into the side of my face. I didn't dare look over because I knew that once I did I'd be subjected to those eyes that ripped into my soul.

Charlie Sheen laughed, "Yer kid?" he laughed again, "how do we know it's yer kid?"

He pushed his finger a bit harder on his trigger, eyes narrowed in on Daryl's chest.

I could still feel Daryl's eyes on me. I bit hard on the inside of my cheek, suppressing the blush that crept into my veins. For one brief tic of a moment, one second that could have blown everything, I twitched my eyes in Daryl's direction and let out a sigh. I don't know why he did it. I don't know how he knew. I just twisted in his direction, and he reached out and took Judy from me without another word.

"A birthmark," he grunted, "on her foot." He started pulling her baby leggings off slowly, "It looks like a damn fucking heart." He tugged Judy's pants a bit more and finally pulled her foot up for the group of them to inspect.

There it was. A perfect heart.

The oldest man scratched his head, "Can't make this kind of shit up, Jess."

The Charlie Sheen guy grabbed the bottom of the foot and looked at it hard. I could see his gaze move between Tara and myself.

It seemed like forever before he snorted, retracted his gun, and then turned back to me.

"You got anyone else?" He asked.

"For fucks sake, Jess." Said the older man, "it don't take a fucking rocket scientist to see the truth," he stepped forward and held out his hand. "I'm Hank, and this here is Jamie," he nodded to the other man beside him. "The asshole with the gun," he looked back over his shoulder, "Christ Jess, put down your fucking gun…"

I snorted.

Hank turned back and smiled, "That's Jess." He rolled his eyes, "He's a little bit more brash than he should be."

I nodded again.

"And that's Mai and Keith." He tossed his finger in the direction of the Jane Lynch impersonator and another man beside her.

"Come on, Beth," Daryl whispered to me; slowly backing up towards the door.

I looked back at Hank and than over at Daryl again.

It didn't seem like these people were terrible.

_Good job, Beth. Let them totally fuck you over. _

I turned, Daryl at my side. We had no weapons, but I hoped they'd just let us go. Hank seemed to be somewhat reasonable now. We both started backing up, Judy in Daryl's arms. Maybe my brief fib had saved us.

"Don't go!" Hank yelled out. "A child aint safe on the road! As a father you should know that!"

I stumbled back a bit; even if his words were for Daryl I faltered too. I wasn't expecting anyone to speak to us after we clarified Judith was with us.

Jess snorted, "Let them go, Hank." He pulled his gun against his chest, " if they want to fuck off then by all means let them do so. I don't have time to play fucking matchmaker for the Institute."

Curiosity got the cat.

In this case it got me bad.

"What's the Institute?" I quirked a brow.

"Let's go Beth." Daryl whispered, still clinging on to my Judy.

Mai finally placed her gun back into her belt and ushered Jess beside her. He barely moved, but he at least lowered his gun slightly.

"It's a small town," even when Jess bumped her shoulder she kept going, "kinda, like a place to live if ya ain't got any family or somethin'." She shrugged, "we just take in people when they look desperate, ya know, like fucking refugees or something."

"Mai, we ain't a charity case," Jess mumbled.

She blushed, "Oh yeah, I mean ya gotta pull yer own weight and do stuff for the Institute, but it's easy shit really." She licked her lower lip, "bring in more help, clear the flesh-monsters, pick up the slack….ya know." She shrugged. "We found Tara with Judy yesterday...we were gonna bring her back to take care of her."

I flickered my gaze to Daryl who had his arms wrapped safely around Judy.

"We don't need any help." I mumbled.

Tentatively I reached out and rested my arm against Daryl's closest wrist.

Tara shoved her hands into her pockets, "The baby ain't doing so well."

We could have walked away.

Daryl was already heading back to the door when she said it, and even though I didn't want to hear it I stopped in my tracks.

"What do ya mean she ain't doing ok?" I asked.

Long stares went out across the room. Man to man. Woman to Woman. Man to Woman.

Tara cleared her throat, "She's been real warm these last few days…wont sleep, gotta cough." She shrugged, "they said they had a doctor where they are at."

A few years ago I remembered when Carl was carried up our doorstep and into our house. We didn't have much to give him, we didn't have much of anything. Still, my Daddy worked hard on keeping him alive and I remembered how scared the rest of them looked when they finally showed up at our doorstep. I didn't know them at all. Trust them, hell, I don't think I ever trusted them till the barn caught on fire. And here were these people, telling me that my sweet baby Judy was sick and they could help us. They could take us to this Institute. I didn't know if I could trust them. I didn't know if I'd wake up tomorrow and we'd all be some Walker bait on the highway.

Daryl was already shaking his head no.

Surprise.

He never trusted anyone.

I knew where the loyalties were before I opened my mouth. I turned slightly and looked back at Jess, "Would you take us back to your doctor?"

"We ain't going with them Beth!" Daryl grunted, his hand coming up through his hair.

I watched Jess' face for a moment.

He looked over at Hank and then shrugged, "Peter needs some new people." He licked his lower lip, "But Peter ain't a saint, and he aint gonna be giving out space to some Daddy and his fucking sick kid." He snarled.

I knew people like him; people that looked at Daryl like a one trick pony.

"He's a tracker! He can hunt anything!" I added, suddenly feeling defensive but when I looked over at Daryl I could see the anger in his face.

I kept going.

"He can get food, and protect people and loads of other stuff!" I stammered out. I could suddenly feel his angry eyes on me again. I knew that anything that had happened earlier in the house had been lost.

Kisses didn't last forever.

Lust was just a fools game.

"How the fuck is he gonna do that with his fucking baby around?" Jess laughed again.

I guess I should have kept my mouth shut. Maybe I could have salvaged our relationship.

Damn me.

I always thought of the children first.

I swallowed, looked over at Daryl and Judith, and then looked back at the rest of the people there. I could never offer a lot. When we were in the prison all I could ever offer was my expertise with the children.

So they wanted a tracker?

So they wanted something in return for Judith's medicine?

I sauntered up to Daryl's side and touched Judith's hand, "Daryl can help you out. He has a lot of time."

Jess snorted, and Daryl quirked his eyebrows.

Kiss or no kiss….I couldn't let him do everything.

"I'm Judith's nanny. I can take care of her while he pays our debt."

Jess turned to Daryl and laughed, "Dude, you've been fucking the nanny?" He slapped his knee, looked at my blushed face, and then waved us all out of the house.

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So sorry I havent updated sooner!

I had the flu the last week and it kicked my butt. Im not even happy with how this chapter came out, but its a filler and will bring us to the next mega rising point in the story.

In the next chapter a HUGE meet up will take place. An old prison group member will finally make an appearance, but it will make things slightly difficult for out Bethyl couple. Do you think you know who it is?

**_CONTEST/POLL_: Take a guess! I'm contemplating between 2 characters showing up in the next chapter so check out my profile page and vote in the poll. It will help determine who shows up at the Institute!**

Love to you all!


	13. Chapter 13

**Well here is the reason I must bump this to a M rating. Starting to get into some slight smutty things. For those who voted in the poll, thank you! For those who sent me their votes in a PM much thanks! The winning character will show up at the end of this chapter. Please take a moment to review if you can. Its always appreciated.  
**

**Here we go...**

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**"Keep the noise low.**

**She doesn't wanna blow it.**

**Shaking head to toe**

**while your left hand does "the show me around."**

**Quickens your heartbeat.**

**It beats me straight into the ground." – Brand New**

_Chapter 13 – Keep the Noise Low_

I was glad that Daryl never answered Jess. I was glad we all piled into cars and I could tuck Judith into my chest. We were heading to this Institute…I knew Daryl didn't want to. In the truck it was just the two of us, Judy and Hank. Everyone else went off into other vehicles; Tara was the only one to complain that she couldn't be without Judith. When I told her to get away she obliged, of course I think she was mostly scared that Daryl would rip her face off. Still, she went with the other people and we began our trek out of the small suburban area and out onto the road.

It was only meant to be a few miles before we got there. I was hoping that some of the others had found there way there. God, I was hoping for something.

It was so late, and it was so cold, and as I snuggled my sweet little Judy into my chest I looked up at Daryl through the rearview mirror and tried to smile an apology.

He wasn't hearing it.

When he looked back at me all I saw was anger and disdain and I wanted to die.

He had no choice but to go along with the act I had put up. Judy was now his daughter and I was some flighty nanny that took care of her. I never meant to cause any trouble, but it seemed like the only way they would let us take her was by giving her a father. We didn't know where Rick was, hell, we didn't know if he was alive. So I improvised. In the long run I'd have wished that she was mine and her father was dead. I never meant to drag him into something he couldn't handle.

"Turn here…" Hank pointed to a fork in the road, following the other car in front of us.

"Will they be nice to us?" I asked, cuddling my sick little Judy even closer.

Hank snorted, "It's up to Peter. He runs the place."

It wasn't reassuring. It didn't give us anything. But Judy was sick, and Daryl, despite his attitude, wanted her well. Getting her well would be our only way of getting out of here.

"Follow slowly," Hank advised. We were coming up to a large fence, one that looked much more secure than the prison, but a lot less intimidating.

"You expecting a welcome party?" Daryl drawled on, his hands gripped firmly to the steering wheel and coming to a complete stop as the truck in front of him halted.

I held Judy tighter, afraid to let her go.

It didn't feel right.

None of this did.

I tried to yell out before the doors were yanked open.

I tried to stop them from taking Judy from me.

I yelled for Daryl.

I saw his eyes in the rearview mirror again.

All the anger he had held mere minutes ago were gone. I saw him look at me; really really look at me. As I was pulled from the car, my body flinging around for escape, I heard him yell;

"Beth! No-Beth! I'll find you…I'll find you both."

I watched as someone covered his head with a sack. I saw him get pulled away.

I felt a hand come down over my eyes, felt someone take me under my arms. I felt the ground disappearing under my feet.

I woke up.

I fluttered my eyes and closed them again as the overhead lamp burned. I didn't know how long I had been knocked out, but it was long enough that I felt my body quake in exhaustion. I was in a room. It looked like a bedroom, but the last time I had seen one was almost a year ago. I opened my mouth to yell for help. All that came out was a raspy breath and I coughed hard into my hand.

"Beth?"

His voice cut through the terror in me.

I lifted my head up from my chest, my hand falling at my side, and I stared at him. I really truly stared. In the dim light of the sunset through the windows he looked younger. The aging lines in his face seemed subtle and almost non-existent. He stood there looking at me, and I curled up into the bed I was laying on and brushed my hands over my legs.

"Where are we?" I asked softly; my chin rested on my legs and I slightly twisted my head around to look for Judy.

He came in further, his right hand brushing over the back of his head and winding into his hair.

"They took her to the hospital." He grunted, "they got a good one here. I mean, they got a real doctor that has been floodin' her with meds and shit."

I nodded, chin still curled into my knees.

"Why'd they knock us out?" I asked. "Why did they take us like that?"

He snorted, " Didn't trust us I guess." He held his hands out to his sides, " I don't particularly look like a saint." He laughed under his breath, and I couldn't help but chuckle with him.

Slowly I released myself from my knees and tiled my eyes so they caught his. "Will they let us take her after she's better?"

I could see him think about it; I watched his hand come up to his disheveled beard and stroke it. I knew when he was about to lie.

I just didn't say anything about it.

"They said we can take'er when yer good and ready." It was a soft subtle drawl, his eyes lingering over me for way too long.

"I'm fine." I whispered.

I felt my body twist up.

Here I was worried about my baby Judy, the kid who could be taken away, but his voice had my skin on edge and I sucked back a gasp and quickly bit the inside of my cheek.

"So what do we do until then?" I breathlessly mumbled; eyes fixated on his while my hand twisted up into the fallen locks of my hair.

I wasn't someone to initiate anything. I wasn't that type of girl. That had always been Maggie. When we were younger, before all hell broke loose, Maggie was the one to go out with boys and end up half naked in their cars. She told me about those times. She always divulged her greatest moments with me. Yet, here I was, practically throwing myself at a man who was twice my age. I mean, I guess I was throwing myself. Honestly I didn't know what I was doing. I just kept looking up at him through my fallen hair and half hoping he could make me feel better.

"Told you, it can't be happin' Beth." He muttered, but he was already crossing the floor and gripping my hips on the bed. He slid down beside me and held himself there; like he was waiting for me to call rape or something.

I tilted my head upwards; in this moment I could have easily kissed him. I could have closed the small gap and taken his lips in mine.

I didn't.

I was a prude,

But I opened my mouth anyway, "What can't be happening?"

His kiss on my lips was soft but needy. It was everything I had been waiting for and yet expecting at the same time. When his hand wrapped up into my hair I shuttered and pushed my body against his, negating the space and letting his hands run over my back and down my spine. When his large rough hands found my ass I moaned into his mouth, dragging my teeth across his lower lip and pushing my kiss further.

This was all I had expected.

This was all I had ever done.

When he moved his hands down my ass and pressed his fingers into the back of my thighs I was a goner.

I had no will left to live a life alone.

Not without him.

Not without him ever again.

And so I gave in.

I gave in to everything that I had been thinking of since he kissed me; everything that I felt since Charlene had said we were each other's.

_"He's yer's, ya know" _

Charlene's voice rang inside my head.

I pushed my hips into his, knocking my sex against his and eliciting a groan from his mouth that only reassured me that I was doing the right thing. When he pushed himself harder against me, I pulled back, playing coy but at the same time trying to let him know I wanted this. God, I wanted this. I didn't know if I wanted anything more.

When he suddenly pulled away from me I whined softly, my hand reaching out to touch his shoulder, but of course barely making contact with it..

"Daryl?" I whispered, suddenly feeling like such a child there next to him.

He ran his hand down over his face and cursed under his breath, "I gotta go." But he didn't go anywhere. Instead, his right hand lingered on my hip and steadied me to the spot.

I could have done a lot of things I guess. I could have told him to leave. I could have rolled over and gone back to sleep.

I lifted my hand up to his face and ran my fingers lightly through his scruffy beard. I always loved that about him. He had this way of making himself look like shit but at the same time he looked so perfect.

" I ain't gonna run away from you Daryl." I muttered into his ear.

I guess that was all he needed.

When his lips crashed against my own again I met them back with such a force that I couldn't comprehend where his lips started and where mine began. I traced fingers down his cheeks, stopping at his chin and carefully caressed his jaw; all the while his tongue darted in and out of my mouth, tracing circles against my own. It was overwhelming to say the least. A moment I never thought I would experience.

"Beth?" he pulled away slowly, fingers trailing down my sides and hooking on the button of my jeans.

"What?" I asked; although I knew what he was asking even if he didn't say it.

"I fuckin' need you."

There probably were a lot of things a guy could say to get into your pants. There were probably a lot of things that I could have done to keep him out.

I was a sucker for a hillbilly romance I guess.

Lifting my hips I shimmied down out of my jeans and let him sling them to the side. I was glad I wore the light blue underwear I had, they were clean and although they weren't quite feminine, they weren't the old woman underwear my Ma had been wearing back in her prime; at least I felt pretty to a degree.

I could feel his warm breath against my inner thigh, tracing slow circles across my skin and then slowly settling his fingers on my core. No one had ever touched me there. I never touched myself there. I lobbed my head back and groaned. Just the feel of warmth at the spot made me shiver, and when I felt the soft glide of a finger against me I whined even more.

"Shhh," he chuckled, slowly maneuvering the material away from me and breathing again against my slit. It was the first time I had ever felt anything like that there. God, I had never even touched myself!

His breath tickled and toyed, leaving me winding my hips upwards into the air; practically beckoning him to do something to take my lame virginity away.

He kissed the inside of my thigh, his tongue sucking up the sweat and circling patterns into my skin. He was so close to my clit that I could feel the pulsing joy; I could practically feel him there. His lips moved further, toying at my sensitive lips and teasing me even more.

"Daryl…please…" I shuttered, not even believing that I had even let him drag his mouth across places I had barely even touched myself.

"Come on Beth…" he urged, licking my skin once more. " come on, Beth…"

He shoved me hard in the shoulder.

"Daryl?" I snapped up, shooting him an off look.

" Fucking get up. Beth!" He yelled again.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yelled, suddenly slapping him away from me.

A hand smacked my leg, I yelped, and rubbed the spot. I felt something hit my cheek. Something hit my cheek hard.

The next smack had me seeing stars.

"Does she need any of those vitamin shots?" I heard a familiar voice ring over me.

My eyelids fluttered and I tried to make out what was going on.

"We can give her a small dose of this," I felt a sting in my arm, " and we'll just make sure she gets enough fluids."

I forced my eyes open now.

"Beth?" A voice filled my head while a gentle hand caressed my cheek, "God Beth we were so worried."

I waited for my eyes to focus, waited until I was sure that everything I had just felt was merely a dream.

It was a dream.

Daryl...all of it... a dream. I wanted to curl up and die.

Her voice brought me back. "Beth?"

"Carol?" I looked up into the older woman's face, her eyes beaming down on me and sheltering me with the love my own mother once had.

"Bethany, I'm so glad to see you, hun." Carol leaned down and pressed her face into my neck.

I let her.

I let her press her face there and take in all she needed too. I should have been happy to see her. I should have wanted to see my Judy. I should have begged to see her.

All I could think about was Daryl.

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**Ok my loves, please review and let me know what you think. Now that Carol is back things are going to get real uncomfortable for our favorite couple. **

**I love you all! Next chapter will have an epic kudos reviewer spotlight! **


	14. Chapter 14

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Check out the note at the end for some important information!

On to the next bit...

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**My state of mind has finally**

**got the best of me – Demi Lovato **

_Chapter 14 – State of Mind_

"Carol?" I wheezed out, trying to pull away from her even when she held me tighter.

"Sorry Beth," she laughed, letting me go a bit so I could breathe.

Her hands still held on to my shoulders, eyes glistening with tears that let me know that she had missed me…us. She missed us. I felt tears hit my cheeks. I had missed her too.

"What happened?" I whispered, my throat still dry and feeling like I had inhaled a gallon of smoke. It hurt to suck in and so I took small gasps of air to stabilize myself.

Carol nodded to the room around us, "You were pretty out of it when they brought you in." She shook her head, "I don't know why they went all primal on you both, guess it was just fear or something."

I racked my brain trying to recall what had happened after we were pulled from the car.

Judy. Daryl. Where were they?

"Where's Judy?" I asked first, licking my dry lips and beckoning for the water cup beside my bed.

A short bald man reached out and handed me a cup. I had the urge to throw it in his face but I was so thirsty that I took it down without even questioning what it was. So much for being safe.

Carol pursed her lips together, "Judy is fine. She's been in the room next to yours. They've given her some medication and everything will be fine."

I dropped the paper cup to the floor; if Carol said Judy was safe, well I believed her.

"What about Daryl?" My eyes shifted down to my knees, and I suddenly found myself tugging back from Carol's hands so she was forced to settle them at her sides. I didn't know why I pulled away. Maybe it was just the sudden weird proximity, or maybe it was the realization that Carol had something with Daryl that I'd never have. I hated my stupid dream for making me feel this way. It was childish and dumb. Thank god she didn't notice.

"He's fine," she laughed shortly, rising from the bed and coming to stand next to the bald man. "A little angry that they took you both in the way they did, but he seems to have come around. " she brushed her hand over my hair, "he knows they were just trying to be safe."

My eyes flickered across the room, I tried to convince myself that I was only observing my surroundings; my gut told me that I was looking to see him standing there in the doorway.

He wasn't.

My heart sank.

"This is Claud," she nodded to the man at her side, "he's been giving you some meds to get your system all straightened out."

I tried to sit up in the bed, "I'm fine," I started, "I don't need anything."

Carol scoffed, "Hell Beth, ya came in here half dead, all dehydrated and shit and you want me to just let it be?"

I felt the tears start to crawl down my cheeks; my head pressing back into the pillow behind me.

"I just wanna see Judy." I half sobbed.

And Daryl.

I wanted to see Daryl.

I wanted to know that he was ok and this wasn't some screwed up dream.

"You'll be out of here soon, Beth." Claud came up to my side and patted my head with a damp cloth. "We just wanted to make sure you were healthy enough to take care of her."

It was this that broke me.

"Take care of her?" I yelled, "How the hell am I supposed to take care of her if your just keeping me holed up here instead?" I raised my voice more, "You came at me with guns, with such harshness…you think that she doesn't understand that she's been ripped away from us?"

Claud furrowed his brow, cast a glance at Carol, and then looked back at me. "We wanted to take care of you."

"You wanted to scare us…be dominant…that ain't good qualities in my book." I spit in his direction, suddenly finding myself turning over and facing the wall away from them.

"Maybe you should go," Carol whispered; I could hear the pat of her hand against Claud's arm.

There was silence.

You'd think after months and months in a practically empty prison that silence would be something I was accustomed to.

I hated the silence. It made my skin crawl.

"He's a nice man, Beth." I heard Carol shuffle back to the side of my bed. The way the mattress pressed down I knew she had taken a seat.

I snorted.

"I'm sorry about your Daddy, baby." I could feel her hands run through my hair and settle between my shoulder blades. I held back a sob.

I had tried not to really truly cry since they day Daryl and I had found that cabin. I had tried to remain strong.

But I felt her hands running soft comforting circles on my back and I couldn't hold it anymore. I let it out. I felt my body convulsing on the old bed; my legs digging in to scratchy sheets.

I cried so hard that I couldn't even find the courage to face her; I just sniffled out broken words and broken questions.

"You…didn't…back.." I sobbed, "where did …ya go?" I wiped my nose on the blanket. "You were there….and gone." I sighed, my hand coming up to wipe at my face. "Where did ya go Carol?"

Slowly I turned to look at her over my shoulder, "Where did ya go?"

I've seen a lot of pained faces before; in the time of the end of the world I had watched people I loved go from one extreme to the next. I had watched people I loved die. I had seen a lot of faces. I knew when one was filled with hurt.

Carol bit her lower lip, her hand still rubbing my upper back like my Mama used to do before she died.

It was comforting, yeah, I felt like I had found my mother again, but at the same time I could see the pain in her eyes.

"Where'd ya go Carol?" I asked again, my voice vibrating through my tears.

"We don't need to talk about this now, Beth." She whispered, retracting her hand and folding it into her lap with her other. "It ain't right to talk about it now."

"Please?" It was all I could muster out, my body shot and my soul torn to bits. I didn't know how much more I could take.

Carol rose up from the bed and hovered above me for just a moment. Her hand moved up into her hair and quickly she moved across the floor and closed the door shutting us out from the rest of the community out there. I wasn't scared. I trusted her. Carol was like the mother I had always dreamed of after my own had been ripped away from me.

"Beth…I –" she stammered, took a breath, and then straightened her shoulders, "I don't know how ya may look at me if I tell you why I left."

Scooting myself around beneath the blankets I curled to the other side and smiled as best I could up at her. "You're my family, Carol. Ain't anything you could say that would make me feel any less."

I could see her mind twisting around this information, mulling over what she could say, and what she wanted to say.

Finally I pushed myself up, my head still slightly sore but more aware than I had been when I first opened my eyes.

"I'll forgive ya if it's that bad." I added, my eyes flickering to her knees and then back to her eyes. "That's what family does…we forgive."

"Daryl wont." I thought I heard her murmur, but she finally came back to the side of my bed and rested her bottom there.

"I wanted to keep us all safe Beth, ya know that, right?" I nodded. " I wanted to do whatever had to be done to make sure that our family was taken care of. I didn't want to see anyone hurt…not you or Judy…not Rick or Maggie or even Glenn and Daryl." She choked back a cry, "I even had the responsibility of Lizzie and Mika on me. I just wanted to make sure that they'd be ok and that the infection wouldn't get to them…"

My brows furrowed, "Carol if anyone loved us unconditionally it was always you…I don't know what your saying…I just want you to tell me-"

And it hit me faster than most puzzles ever did. In school I had always failed at those tests that asked you to make obvious inferences about surrounding situations. Course in the prison I had been holed up with Judy for so long I never did get much of the story besides the death of Karen and David. I knew there were things that Rick was doing to figure it all out, but as I looked up into Carol's face I could see the utter turmoil brewing beneath her skin.

"Is this about Karen and David?" I whispered, my hands trembling beneath the blanket.

She remained still for a whole two minutes before nodding.

"Is that why Rick came back without you? " I muttered, "Did you decide to leave?"

She continued to sit in silence, tears running from her eyes and falling down onto the plain purple tank top she was wearing.

"Rick asked me to go. Said it would be safer if I didn't come back."

I felt pelted with a barrage of emotions. Murder. Safety. Family. Death.

They all swirled together and as much as I wanted to reach out and take hold of her hand I was also scared.

I guess she could sense that because her eyes went wide and she quickly brushed her fingers over my forehead.

"Oh god Beth, no." she cried, "I'd never hurt you." She sniffed, "After everything in the prison, after Lizzie and Mika became my responsibility…it was a moment of white blindness…" She stroked my hair. "I hated what I did after I did it. I hated that I had done something I would have normally been so against…"

"Then why'd you do it?" I asked, still trembling beneath her touch.

She pulled her hand away from my head, her fingers moving up to her mouth as she thought how to answer.

"I know it's stupid…I know it's not an excuse…" she whimpered, "I just thought of when I lost Sophia, and how I didn't take any initiative." Her chin dropped to her chest, "I should have shot out from beneath that car! I should have saved my daughter!" Her shoulders heaved, "But I let Lori hold me there cause I was too scared to do anything."

My heart, as torn as it was, fell like lead to the floor beneath my bed.

"I was just tired of being scared, Beth." She added, "I was tired of watching people I loved die when I could have done something to stop it."

Something about her words brought me back to the moment Daryl told me about Zach.

Sick of watching people die.

I felt my brain short circuit, and suddenly I was sitting up and taking her into my arms and hugging her tight.

My head still throbbed, my body still ached.

It was my heart that seemed to hurt the most. '

"I ain't saying you did the right thing," I whispered into her shoulder. "I think Karen and David would still be alive…"

She sobbed harder into my hair, and I cried with her.

"I'm sorry Beth. I really am. I'm sorry about doing what I did and leaving the family and everything that went to shit after I was gone."

A sudden knock on the door had us both jolting back from each other and wiping at our red rimmed eyes.

"One moment." Carol sniffled, her eyes meeting mine.

"Did you tell Daryl?" I whispered, fixing myself in the uncomfortable bed. IT was even more uncomfortable after I mumbled his name.

Even after all this his name brought a sudden flutter to my stomach. I was glad when she stood and took away my attention.

"Not yet, ya gotta give me some time. He's been with Judith the whole time and I barely have said anything to him about it." She sniffed, "he knows…I know he knows…" she fixed her hair, "Rick wouldn't have left him hangin' bout where I went." There was a sudden flush to her cheeks that made my insides grow hard, and I merely nodded as she crossed the room and put her hand on the knob.

She looked back at me for just a moment, a shared moment between a once mother and child. That's what she had been to me. Its possibly what she could have still been even after all the horrible things she just told me.

But when she opened the door, Daryl standing there with Claud, I could see her demeanor change. Her smile grew brighter, and she looked at him just as I had mere moments ago in my dream. I felt a black hole swirl deep inside of me; sucking away at things I had been feeling. I wanted to scream out. I wanted him to hate her. I wanted him to lift me out of the bed and grab Judy and run away with us.

"Hey." Was all I said.

"Glad to see yer alive, kid." He muttered, and that was it. He gave a half shrug of his shoulder and then looked over at Carol.

My heart slowly shut down.

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**Ok, so now we have gotten into the meat of the story. For all of you who are waiting for more romantic relations between Beth and Daryl...well we are for reals not too far off. No more dream sequences! Still, like Norman Reedus saids...Daryl will always be a slow burn sort of guy so it will take a bit but not too much longer. **

**Let me know what you think! Review, Follow, Favorite or just plain PM me! I love input.**

**Next chapter will bring in a few more of the old crew. Can anyone guess who it is? **


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer**: Just as a reminder, I do not own any aspect of The Walking Dead.

**Author's Note:** HEY LOVLIES! So first off I just want to say sorry for taking longer than a week to get this out. I was swamped at work this week and totally couldn't find the right angle to finish this chapter every time I attacked it. Regardless you all have been super supportive and wonderful and I love you ALL. I mean 18 reviews for the last chapter?! THATS AWESOME! I love you guys! The more reviews, the more my Daryl muse urges me to write!

On a side note, to the one GUEST reviewer who continues to leave nasty comments and private messages for me, well you can continue to do so... and I'll just continue to **delete them**. Look, I'm not on this site because I am a fabulous author, I have never claimed to be. I'm on here to have fun and write some stories and plots that I think other people may enjoy. If you don't enjoy them, well thats cool, I don't expect everyone to fall in love with what I post. However I do expect people to be respectful and not attack me for what I'm putting up. So if you happen to be that certain **GUEST** who keeps telling me I am ruining the characters and suck at writing, well, here is a piece of advice...DONT KEEP CLICKING ON MY FUCKING STORY TO READ!

Ok my dears... tee hee...this is a fun one...

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"**I've been up for days,  
Trying to find a way to write my confession down." – City and Colour**

_**Chapter 15 – Confessions  
**_

I tried not to listen to Daryl and Carol talk by my bedside. They had ushered the doctor away and were discussing Daryl's new fatherly role in regards to Judith. As much as he may have been angry with me earlier, he seemed relatively calm talking to Carol about it now. I didn't doubt that Carol would go through with it; I was just surprised she didn't ask to play the mother figure to Daryl's father. I snorted into my pillow, my back was to them and I curled into the blankets.

"You alright, Beth?" Carol asked.

"Fine." I mumbled.

It wasn't until Carol offered us her apartment for the night that I found my voice again. Suddenly I was very much concerned with getting Judith and getting out of this place. I didn't want to stay with these people; I didn't want to be looked at as a child. Even after all the horrible things that had happened when the prison fell I had finally found some semblance of freedom. Daryl had made me feel free. He had made me feel resourceful and strong throughout our short time on the road together. Suddenly with Carol there I felt like I was being lumped back in with the kids again; being looked at as a child instead of the 19 year old woman that I was.

I stayed quiet the entire walk to Judy's room; finally mumbling only a few baby words as I pressed my nose into her chubby little neck while I lifted her from her crib. I could sense Daryl's eyes on my back as we moved through the wing of hospital rooms and stepped out beneath the bright Georgia moonlight.

It wasn't a big community. I could see a few fences down towards the end of the street. The sidewalk was lined with a couple of houses to my right, to my left was a small main street area and a high rise apartment complex that looked like it was about three or four floors.

That's where we were headed. Carol had informed us that her place had two bedrooms and a relatively useful bathroom. Apparently the place had gathered enough fuel for some generators that they ran during certain allotted hours. Everyone was permitted to turn on their electricity on assigned days. It did seem nice. The promise of warm food or a hot shower had my skin itching.

Carol's place was on the second floor. It was pretty sparse, a couch and easy chair centered in a living room area that connected to the kitchen. Carol pointed to the three doors down a small hallway. The last two on the left were the bedrooms; the door on the right was the bathroom.

I didn't bother waiting for either of them to say anything to me. I moved down the hallway to the first bedroom, disregarding if it was the one Carol used, and closed the door behind me. It was easy enough for me to make a tiny area for Judith. I pulled the comforter from the bed and two throw pillows and made a small sleeping spot on the floor for her. Once I settled her in, and once she seemed to fall asleep, I began peeling off my clothes until I was down to my underwear and bra. My legs ached for rest, and as I crawled onto the bed I felt my bones relax almost instantly. I couldn't remember the last time I slept in a bed and felt safe. I was asleep before my head had really even hit the pillow.

It was with a sudden startle that I awoke, my eyes frantically looking over at Judith to check if she was ok. Her thumb had worked its way into her mouth, the tiny bundle still out like a light. I wiped my hand over my face and sighed. Whatever it was that brought me out of my slumber, was enough to jolt me fully awake. I lay back down and tried closing my eyes, willing myself to get a few more hours of peace before the day started and I was forced to face the world again.

My stomach grumbled.

Damn.

I wasn't sure when I ate last, but the agonizing gnaw in my stomach had me believing that it had to have been awhile.

Kicking blankets off my legs, I slipped from the bed and padded over to the window. The moon was high above the apartment now. It was late. The streets were eerily empty. I wondered if they had night watches like we used to have in the prison. I wondered if Carol helped run those watches. I wondered if Daryl already joined the ranks of people keeping watch.

Pulling the blanket from the bed I wrapped it around my frame and glanced one more time at Judith. She was still sleeping. It gave me some time to find something to satisfy my hunger. Slowly I opened the bedroom door; peaking my head out just enough to look down the hall and out in the living room. It was dark and quiet. I looked to my left. The other bedroom door was closed and I could hear light snoring coming from behind the concealed white wood. My heart sank again as I imagined Daryl lying beside Carol. No matter how many times I tried to deny it now, no matter how many times I wanted to tell my heart that it was just some silly feeling of attachment, I knew it was more than that.

The feelings inside me were too strong to be anything else. I suddenly hated myself for having them.

Quietly I tiptoed out of the room, making my way around the couch and towards the small kitchen area. Chancing the refrigerator would be nice, but I still wasn't sure about the electricity. I opted for the cabinet above the sink instead, relieved to find a box of cereal and some bowls. Pulling down the box I turned it over, Frosted Cornflakes, yeah I suppose that would do.

Opening the box, and sliding down a bowl, I poured myself a half bowl and then put the box away. My fingers dug into the stale cereal quickly, bringing the sugary goodness to my mouth and suddenly making me wish I had a glass of cold juice to wash it down. I shoveled more in with my right hand, my left holding up the blanket around me. I bounced lightly on the balls of my feet, a small grin finding its way to my lips as I licked my fingers clean of the sugar.

"Yer gonna choke if ya keep scarfin' those things down like that."

I almost knocked the bowl off the counter in surprise.

"Christ Daryl!" I whispered harshly, my right hand over my heart, "Ya scared the heck out of me."

He snorted, "Ain't my problem yer more skittish than a kitten."

Even in the dark I could see his eyes roam over my choice of attire, lingering a bit too long on my bare legs beneath the blanket.

I wrapped the material even tighter around me.

"What are you doing?" I kept my voice low; it was still late and I didn't want to wake Judith…didn't want to wake Carol either.

He shrugged and nodded his head in the direction behind him. "Sleepin' on the couch."

It was then I looked over and saw the disheveled blanket and small white pillow. It wasn't a big couch, in fact for someone Daryl's size it looked downright uncomfortable.

I felt guilty.

"You could have come and asked me for the bed." My heart quickened as he took a step towards me, the moonlight from the window gracing his face and illuminating his eyes. They were so tired. It pained me to see how tired he really was.

"Ya got lil asskicker in there…" he moved one shoulder up, "you bein' rested in there with her is more important."

I nodded slowly, lowering my eyes and focusing on my toes.

"Sorry about everything," I whispered, feeling the need to let him know that I hadn't meant to ever cause him any trouble.

"Sorry about what?" his voice turned the slightest, "what ya got ta be sorry about?"

My head shook back and forth, my hair falling into my face, "About everything. Seems like if ya hadn't dragged me along with ya half these things wouldn't be happening."

His hand wiped over his face, "You ain't makin' any sense, Beth." He turned his back and leaned one hand on the other counter. "Ya haven't done anythin' to feel sorry for."

I guess my guilt got the best of me because I couldn't stop the word vomit from coming out of my mouth.

"Course I do!" I burst out, my hand coming to my mouth while my eyes flicked down the hall to watch Carol's door. When it didn't open I lowered my fingers to my chin, "I'm the reason we got stuck at the motel, and I'm the reason we almost got attacked in that house…those people got the jump on me at the car and if I didn't say you were Judith's Daddy things could have been a whole lot easier."

His back was still turned to me although I could hear a heavy sigh pass through his lips.

"Ya got to stop blaming yerself fer stuff like this Beth," he mumbled gruffly, and in my mind I could see the pained expression on his face. I knew it was there. By now I felt like I knew how Daryl Dixon worked.

"But if I had just kept to myself, if I stopped being so stupid and clumsy all the time, ya wouldn't be angry with me."

"Stop." It wasn't harsh or mean, just one simple word that had me shutting my mouth and staring at his back. I could see the edges of his tattoo peaking from beneath his tattered tank.

The silence that filled the space between us was deafening. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, thundering away like a steel drum.

"I ain't angry with ya, Beth." He finally turned back around and looked at me through his long hair, "I was never angry with ya."

My mouth opened, hung there for a moment, and then closed again. Well color me confused.

"Then why'd you practically push me away back at the house? Why'd you look murderous when I said you were Judith's Daddy?" I paused, "Why'd ya start calling me kid when ya came to see me in the hospital?"

"Jesus Beth, I don't know." He stepped forward and moved right by me, stopping to stand in front of the window with his hands on his hips. His head hung low on his neck.

Suddenly I felt incredibly brave, "Well you have to know!" I hissed, "You can't keep playing yo-yo with me Daryl." I found my footing and came up behind him. "Ya kissed me back in that house, ya know ya did! I sure as heck didn't initiate it." I huffed when he didn't turn, "then ya practically rip my head off in front of those people, and barely even talked to me when Carol was there in the hospital."

I reached out with my right hand and grabbed his elbow, "The least you can do is look at me when I talk, Daryl." I yanked, but he didn't budge.

He kept staring out that window like he was waiting for some damn life line.

"What am I supposed to do, Daryl?" I pleaded, my hand still on his elbow, "What do you want me to do?"

He whipped around, knocking my hand from his elbow, "I don't want ya ta do nuthin but stay safe, Beth." It was the way he rolled out my name that had my pulse quicken. "You and Judith…it's always 'bout keepin' ya safe."

"I'm safe with you, Daryl." I quickly added, "You've kept me safe."

I could see him battling with himself, doing his best to keep his eyes from finding my own.

"It ain't just about bein' safe." He sighed, "I don't want ya to be scared out there anymore."

I swallowed; my hand slowly finding courage and reaching up to brush some hair out of his eyes.

"I know ya wanna save me from walkers, Daryl," My fingers lingered over his skin, tempting fate. I just didn't care anymore. I wanted something from him, "but it ain't walkers I'm terrified of anymore."

"Then what _are_ ya scared of?" His voice was like gravel; goose bumps shoot across my skin.

I licked my lower lip, biting down hard on the flesh while I tried to muster up the words. "I'm scared I'm gonna wake up one morning and you won't be there anymore." I paused, "It terrifies the hell out of me."

And it was the truth.

I didn't know when it had become so obvious to me, but it was true. The thought of fighting off a thousand walkers didn't compare to the thought of being without Daryl. I needed him.

It just took me all this time to finally admit it.

When I finally focused back on his features again, my eyes settling on his, I couldn't bear to see the hard stare he was giving me.

His nostrils flared, and I could hear the distinct crack of his knuckles at his sides.

"Daryl, say something," I pleaded, wanting him to just say anything in response to what I had just confessed.

Silence.

Fine. If he didn't care then maybe I'd force myself not to care either.

With my chin held high I wrapped my blanket tighter around me, neglecting to clean up the bowl of cereal I had been eating from. Before I could feel any more like a fool I spun on my heel and tore from the room, Course it wasn't like I could storm away from him, mostly I just quickly shuffled back to the bedroom and closed the door softly behind me. I tossed the blanket back onto the bed and gave a frustrated muffled sigh into the palms of my hands. Dropping my hands to my sides I snaked my arm across my bare belly and moved back to the window, checking on Judith with a quick glimpse to be sure she was still sleeping.

The moon had moved further across the sky; a sick reminder that I'd have to go back out there soon and face him.

The click of the bedroom door had me spinning, my back pressing against the window sill and illuminating me in the pale moonlight.

I didn't expect him to follow me. I don't think he expected to see me standing there half naked.

My eyes flashed over to the blanket on the bed, and just as I pushed away from the window to go grab for it, Daryl was crossing the room and closing the distance between us.

I grabbed for the blanket.

He grabbed for my wrist.

As I yanked the blanket towards me, he yanked me towards himself.

I long forgot about the blanket and the fact that I was partially naked as soon as he crushed his lips against my own.

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YAY! Real kisses! Not dream kisses! Well I suppose you can guess where this next chapter is heading. It's about to get a bit hot in that bedroom. Anything you are interested in seeing happen between the two? **Leave a REVIEW and let me know!**

Much love to you all! You guys make my muse all a flutter!


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